Teamwork
by Asuka Kureru
Summary: NaruSasuSaku. Why are Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura waking up in the same bed anyway? What has got the Council so freaked? How will Team 7 cope with the repercussions? OT3, not love triangle. With plot! COMPLETE
1. Sakura : Awakening

**TEAMWORK  
**Asuka Kureru

**Pairing**: **NaruSasuSaku**. Meaning _threesome_, menage a trois. _NOT love triangle_. If you feel uncomfortable about gay relationships, straight relationships, or three-people relationships, this is not the fic for you.  
**Warnings**: Rated R for Inner Sakura's potty mouth, some violence and blood, and allusions to previous and future sexual relationships. NO LEMON ON FFNET. I wrote a couple of them; the links are in my profile.  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine. Don't hit. ;.;  
_/blah/ _Inner Sakura thinking at Sakura

**This fic was started before the conclusion of the Valley of the End fight.** As such, it takes place in a divergent history. There was a Valley of the End battle, it just ended differently. For one thing, Sasuke was brought back home.

Characters are based on their Part One selves. Most of them aren't changed very much, if at all, since the way they evolved after Sasuke left would have been the same regardless. Sakura, though, is still a lot more Part 1 Sakura than Shippuuden Sakura at the beginning of the story. Teamwork!Sakura had no reason to harden herself as much as her canon counterpart, therefore she's physically weaker and more unsure than she is in current canon. She'll get better eventually, just give her some time to find her motivation.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Awakening**  
(Sakura)

Sakura woke up to find a weight across her chest, pinning her down. It was uncomfortable -- way too warm, kind of sticky. And there was something tickling her neck, a bit like grass, or a dog's coarse fur. She wanted to scratch, but the same warm, sticky weight trapped her hand against her thigh.

That, and she'd been trained not to move if she didn't know where she was waking up, or who was watching. And she could tell that she wasn't alone.

Sounds contained, muffled by walls... No direct sunlight. She deducted that she was inside a room, a bedroom probably. There was a futon under her, though her heel hung over the edge, and the air was a bit stale; no drafts brought fresher air in there. There was a strong scent in the room, almost repulsive; a bit like old sweat and -- something else.

She counted one, two breathing patterns around her. Slow, shallow, relaxed: sleeping. One of these was ghosting against her armpit. She couldn't help but scrunch up her nose. Her skin was damp there and she knew the excessive warmth of the room had made her sweat; the person on that side of her was probably breathing in the smell. She would have squirmed away in embarrassment, except that the arm on her chest was still firmly pinning her down.

Wait.

Arm. On her chest.

Bed.

Naked.

She sat up in a leap as her brain finally did the math. "Gah!"

Naruto blinked sleepily up at her. "Huh? Sak'ra? Whazzamatter?"

Naruto. Her teammate Naruto. Naruto the blond loudmouth who'd been a pain in her ass from age twelve. Naruto the cheerful, silly teammate who'd made her rage, despair, sigh and laugh. Naruto the steadfast friend she'd never, ever allowed to take her out on a date.

Naruto the guy sprawled on the bed at her side.

Naruto. Naked.

Naruto's arm had just been on her chest. Her _bare_ chest.

Naruto had _drooled _on her!

"_AAAAH!_"

SLAP!

"Ow! What the hell?!"

She squirmed back up the bed, blushing and glowering at the same time, desperately trying to kick her brain into gear. Why the hell was Naruto in bed with h-

Why did it hurt so much to sit up?

"_What's going on_?" she screeched.

There was a low, irritated groan from her other side. "Can't you two shut the fuck up? 'm trying to sleep..."

The blond ruffled his short spikes sheepishly. "-- Oh. Sorry Sasuke."

Sakura froze. Then turned her head, slowly.

Their third teammate was curled on his side, facing away from them, the small of his back pressed against her hip. The hair tickling her neck had been his. For one second, she couldn't help but be a bit disappointed. In her romantic fantasies, she often daydreamed that Sasuke's hair would be soft as silk, but it wasn't.

_/What, you thought it stuck up in the back without hair gel because dark, handsome heroes always have the wind in their face or what?/_

Why was she bothering to think about the softness of Sasuke's hair when she was supposed to think about why the _hell_ she was naked in bed with _Sasuke-kun **and** Naruto_? Oh, sure, being in bed with Sasuke was her dream, but what was that stupid, crazy blond ... hunk... _/wow, nice shoulders - wait, scratch that, nice ASS/ -_- ack! What the hell was she thinking about? That was Naruto, not some piece of eyecandy...

Inner Sakura disagreed with her. She was wolf-whistling, and quite happy to forget that the young man currently laying on his belly, utterly naked and thus baring his round buttocks to view, was the same annoying, noisy brat who had latched on her from their first day at the ninja academy, making her look ridiculous in front of all the girls she had wanted to impress.

"Teach you to be nice to losers," Keiko had said, and Rika had replied that it was probably that Sakura WAS a loser too, anyway, and she had spent weeks trying to repair that bad first impression. If cool, popular, fearless Ino hadn't decided to befriend her, she would have stayed a pariah for years. Sure, now she liked Naruto -- he was hard to dislike when you got to know him -- but he was still annoying and clingy and definitely not droolworthy.

_/Like fucking hell he's not. Look at those buns- is that a bite mark?/_

Sakura's cheeks turned a dull red that probably clashed with her hair. She was good at interpreting footprints and other clues of the kind, and the row of teeth imprints adorning one of Naruto's buttocks had to be hers; the jaw was too narrow to be Sasuke's -- Sasuke! She was in bed with the boy she had dreamed of forever, why was she still thinking about Naruto's -- admittedly hot -- body?!

Why was she in bed with her teammates in the first place?

_/And with our pussy hurting as if we'd tried kangaroo rodeo --/_

The red on her cheeks spread to her forehead and neck. As for the tip of her ears, it was already burning.

She vaguely remembered giving that bite mark now.

"Oi, Sakura..." Naruto whined as he sat up, a hand covering the red handprint on his cheek.

Inner Sakura unhelpfully commented that it did sound less aggravating than when he'd been eleven, because his voice had dropped a lot in the last couple of years, and it was hard to sound shrill and crybaby-ish with a rumble like a big cat in the dark.

"What?" she snapped, because he was still whining, sexy-purring voice or not, and she still didn't know... What... EEK! She crossed her arms in front of her breasts and lifted her knees defensively to hide her crotch. Inner Sakura unhelpfully commented that he had seen it all, anyway, that and more, and her ankles weren't large enough to hide her pussy from view. She grabbed a blanket and pulled it to her forcefully, covering herself. Naruto was blinking, as if noticing fully what he'd been gazing at.

And then he had the fucking gall to _leer _at her. She was going to kill him.

"Gimme back!" Sasuke growled sleepily as he rolled on his back and felt around for the blanket Sakura was hiding under.

Even for the man of her life, she refused to hand it over. She was a lady and it was more important that she was dressed than they -- that, and wow, but was Sasuke beautiful. All her girlfriends would kill her if they knew that she was seeing a full frontal view of that lean, tightly muscled, almost hairless body. And her heart was squeezing at the sight of the seal on his neck, but her belly was clenching because as awful as what it symbolized was, the design of the seal itself was still beautiful and she wanted to soothe it with her kisses so badly.

Naruto was watching him too. Lazily, casually. Just as he'd watched her. And he was still smirking. She was going to kill him -- were Naruto's eyes _red_?

A blink, and it was gone. They were sky blue like always, and twinkling with humor. Maybe she was hallucinating.

"Wake up, lazy ass," her blond teammate sang, poking Sasuke's side. The last of the Uchiha yelped in a very undignified way and rolled away, falling off the futon in the process. Naruto started to laugh, and she lifted a hand to thwap him over the head, even as Inner Sakura chortled at the bewildered expression on her beloved's face.

And then she froze because Sasuke was wincing and rubbing his butt, and she didn't need to be a seer to guess why. Same reason as hers.

_/Pretty sure we'd remember sprouting a dick and doing him up the ass/ _Inner Sakura commented helpfully.

"What the fuck..." Sasuke stared at the both of them, just as stunned as Sakura felt. Their eyes met for a second, and then they turned to stare accusingly at Naruto.

"YOU! What did you do?! Why are we -- here?!" she added, just now recognizing Naruto's small apartment.

Naruto winced. "Uhm, I'm not quite sure... EEP!"

The shoe sailed past his head as he ducked, but if Sasuke's throw had missed him, Sakura's kick didn't.

"OWW! Stop, stop! Peace! Let me finish!"

The girl blushed as she noticed that in her hurry to beat him up, she had dropped the blanket. Sasuke was studiously looking away from her, his cheeks pinkening. She mummified herself up quickly, then resumed glaring.

"I mean, I think -- we were out for a drink, right? And then, well... I can guess what happened -- it's not hard to guess, what with the no clothes thing and the smell, but..."

"But?" Sasuke prompted him. His voice was quiet and toneless, which, when you knew them, was a sure sign that you needed to give him what he wanted or take cover _right now_.

"I don't... remember details. I... feel like I got lai-- I feel _good_, I mean," Naruto promptly amended, giving Sakura an embarrassed look before staring down the bed. "But I'm not sure of the... details. It's all foggy..."

"WHAT?" Sakura screeched. They were in _his _apartment and _he _was the one who didn't look surprised to wake up to them both! How could he not know!

Naruto cringed. "I remember feelings and -- and smells. And emotions. A few moments. But it's all disjointed." She glared, and he waved his hands defensively. "Give me a minute! I'll know more when I can think about it and put it all back together."

"You don't seem to be that surprised that your memories are mixed up," Sasuke commented, glaring at him suspiciously. Sakura blinked.

"Hey, that's true!"

She was starting to suspect a drug of some sort. She did remember roughly what had happened -- walking around from bar to bar, not finding many that would let Naruto come in, deciding to hang out just another half-hour, and hey, his place was close by... But after that, it became a mass of actions and sensations and overwhelming desire, and not a trace of conscious, rational thought anywhere in sight. She seemed to remember that at one point, she'd been arguing with Naruto -- he was _so _irritating, she'd been thinking -- even though she couldn't remember what he'd done this time to piss her off. And then -- she didn't know, maybe there was a memory missing because the next second they were kissing each other -- or biting, maybe; she wasn't sure. Then it got even more confusing. It was... Raw need and passion, and hands on her, and her nails raking up muscled backs, and her fingers tangling in bristly hair as she was taken roughly, covered by a heavy body...

_/Wild night./_

Oh, shut up, you, she thought back. It wasn't as if she was a total virgin -- _/not anymore, that's for sure/ -_- SHUT UP! She hadn't been a total stranger to how her body could react to someone else, and she knew that roses and candles was probably a bit too sweet for her first time with Sasuke, but she had never thought that she would ever be in a threesome.

Naruto seemed even more embarrassed by Sasuke's question. He fidgeted nervously, hemmed and hawed and moved as if he wanted to get up and pace, but Sasuke glared him back on the bed.

"Talk."

"It ... happens sometimes."

"The confusing memories?"

Naruto nodded, sobering up. "Yeah... Like when I fight and I'm pissed as hell, or sometimes at night. It's a bit like I'm sleepwalking, but not really. I still sort of know what's happening, but I'm not... not thinking the same way. Some things make sense in a way I can't really explain, and everything's easier and faster and sharper and -- yeah."

Well, what did you know. Naruto could be pretty handsome when he was quiet and serious. He was still a moron.

"And you never thought to inform anyone! What if it's serious? What if - what if you're sick or under a mind control jutsu!?" she raged.

Naruto paled briefly, and looked away. His eyes were sad now.

"... It's not... I know where it's coming from. It's okay, Sakura. It's -- I've never hurt anyone or done anything horrible... I'm still myself. Just... Uninhibited."

She couldn't find words to tell him how stupid he was and how much she wanted to beat him up. Wait, yes, she could. "Never hurt anyone? You said it happens in battle! What if YOU got hurt, because you're not thinking right?!"

She was startled when he snorted, as if her suggestion was stupid.

"When I'm pissed off enough to get like that, I'm the last one at a risk on the battlefield. Anyway, Kakashi-sensei knows why it's happening, and Iruka-sensei too," he added, cutting her off. "There's nothing that can really be done about ... it."

"I wonder what you're lying about," Sasuke said quietly.

Naruto jumped, offended. "I'm not lying!" he snarled, his voice shifting from purry to growly.

"But are you telling us the truth?"

Sasuke's eyes were narrowed and cold. He was in one of his stubborn moods. But from the set of Naruto's clenched jaw and the way he was clenching his fists, he had to be in his corresponding mood. Sakura decided that there were too many questions to ask and she didn't want to wait hours for one of them to drop out of the staring contest. Not that she didn't care that he was hiding something -- something important, she could feel it -- from them both, but there were other ways to learn the truth than by asking directly and slamming against the brick wall that was Naruto's stubbornness.

"That's not the matter right now! What matters is -- why were we... why..." She gestured at the bed, at their naked bodies.

"I didn't force you!" Naruto snarled back, baring his teeth. He looked angry and hurt, and it forced her to calm down; even Inner Sakura couldn't stay on her moral high horse when he looked that ... betrayed.

"I didn't say you did," she replied softly. Both boys blinked at her, surprised. "But none of us were in their normal state yesterday, and _you _are used to it -- and we're not. Is... whatever's happening to you... contagious?"

Naruto scratched his head, puzzled. "Uhh -- that's right, I didn't think it would be... There's no reason why it should be..."

That ruled out drugs and illnesses, then. Those were expected to possibly be contagious. Naruto was absent-minded about lots of things, but he didn't put his teammates' lives in danger for the fun of it. Except Sasuke's maybe, but it was a rival thing, she guessed, and their dares and fights never happened without warning.

Now, he looked guilty. "I really didn't think it would be contagious. You really think everything was my fault? You wouldn't have -- of course you wouldn't have, either of you," he added in a whisper, giving the both of them a stricken look. "I should have known, when you kissed back -- I should have known something wasn't right..."

Sasuke sighed and threw a cushion at his face. " Moron, stop that. You were already gone, right? How could you have stopped?"

Naruto bit his lip hard. "Sometimes I can," he admitted quietly. "When I want it bad enough, I can snap out of it. If I'd realized that you didn't wanna be there, I would have wanted to stop bad enough, believe me," the blond added bitterly.

"You're assuming that I didn't like it at all," Sasuke drawled mockingly," and as usual the only ass it makes is you. Sure, if you had invited me, I would have said no on principle, but I admit I would have missed something," he added as he got on his feet carefully. Inner Sakura commented that it was probably to spare his abused behind, but even she couldn't deny that he moved very sexily.

"I fucked your ass, Sasuke. You do remember that, right?" Naruto snapped back, his tone biting and derisive. Sakura couldn't have said if he was mocking Sasuke or himself. She tensed anyway, waiting for an explosion.

Instead, Sasuke leaned forward and picked up his shirt, putting it on to delay his reply. "I remember. I didn't expect it to feel good."

_/...Well, I didn't expect the Ice Prince to admit that./_

He was just doing it because it gave him the upper hand on Naruto, Sakura realized a second later as the blond ninja started to splutter.

"Make no mistake, dead-last; I'm still going to beat you up bloody."

Naruto was too stunned to notice the challenge. "You -- you l-liked - oh."

Now, Sasuke looked embarrassed. He scowled and looked away, as if wanting to move past this particular discussion. "Only this once. I wasn't in my right mind and that's the only reason I allowed that. I'm not going to let anyone at my ass again," Sasuke growled, glaring hotly at Naruto.

"Good, because your ass is mine," Naruto snarled, glaring back.

Sakura was pretty sure that she wasn't hallucinating the red flash in Naruto's eyes this time. By the second of delay in Sasuke's offended comeback, she was pretty sure he'd seen it too.

"What did you mean by that, dead-last?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

Naruto got up on his feet, just as slowly as Sasuke had, but looking a lot more dangerous. _/Predatory, you mean. Holy fuck, for once I'm glad they forget everyone else when they're fighting.../_

"I mean - "

She saw Naruto pause, hesitate... change his answer.

"I mean -- I'm gonna kick your ass, that's what I mean."

"God, that was lame, even for you." It wasn't rage anymore on Uchiha's face, it was contempt. Naruto was dropping from threat to annoyance in his eyes and Sakura knew from experience that Naruto always took that fall in his esteem very badly.

A second later they were both slamming against the far wall, almost faster than she could follow. She gaped. Naruto had a hand grabbing the collar of Sasuke's shirt, the other _/now THAT is panties-wetting material/ _between his legs, with a solid grip on his balls.

"Your ass is mine," Naruto growled. Sakura shivered, pulling the blanket tighter around her. She didn't need to see to know that his eyes would be red as blood. She could feel the chakra gathering.

Sasuke's eyes flickered crimson.

"You're mine. That what you wanted to hear? You're fucking mine, Uchiha Sasuke."

And then he kissed him.

Sakura gaped, barely registering the Sharingan snapping back to black as Sasuke gasped in surprise and started to struggle.

Naruto plundered his mouth, growling, biting and invading; and then he stepped back without warning and lifted his chin defiantly, as if waiting for a punch he was not afraid of.

"And you know what? I'm not sorry I got to fuck you yesterday. And I'm not sorry I got to fuck Sakura-chan either. It was great. I loved every second of it."

He turned around, hands balled at his sides, and gave the girl the same defiant, angry-and-sad look Sasuke had been getting. His eyes were blue again, and she could have sworn the tattoo on his belly was fading. "Now you can kill me for raping you, because I know I fucking deserve it, and I'm sorry for not getting your consent first, but I'm not sorry that it happened!"

He stayed in the middle of the room, proud, challenging, like a feral beast cornered by hunters, one that knows it's going to die but doesn't ever want to lower its eyes.

He was beautiful, and that knowledge was like a punch to the stomach.

"... I'm angry at you," she admitted quietly. "Because if you asked, I don't remember it. But once it started, it was ...great. Like you said. But you still didn't ask, and I need to know why. Why it happened, and what you're thinking now, you and Sasuke-kun, because -- because I'm a stupid girl, alright? As far as I remember, I loved every second of last night, and I don't want to feel dirty tomorrow because I'll realize when I think back on it that I behaved like a whore for two bastards who only rutted with me because I was convenient!"

She realized that she was sobbing, but she couldn't stop.

"I'm not easy... I'm not... I thought -- I wanted -- only with someone I'd... I'd..."

Naruto looked crestfallen, she noticed vaguely. She couldn't decipher Sasuke's expression, even with all her experience at Sasuke-interpretation.

"Oh- Sakura-chan... You're not -- you're not a whore!"

Naruto was panicking now. He knelt on the bed in front of her, and his hands danced nervously as he reached out to touch her, then drew back, not knowing what to do.

"You're not just convenient! You know I... I lo-- I've had a crush on you forever... You know that..."

His bright blue eyes were welling up with tears. She felt a bit better. Even if it had been just sex, he didn't think any less of her now. But Sasuke was still watching from the wall, unmoving, expressionless, and she wanted his reassurance a lot more than she wanted Naruto's. Except that she feared that she wouldn't get it. Sasuke had relaxed around her in the last years, become more friendly -- she knew she was on his short list of people who actually _mattered_ -- but she would have needed to be blind not to know that between her life and Naruto's, he'd choose Naruto's. Well, except that in most cases he trusted the blond to save himself, of course, but that didn't make it a lot better.

He still wasn't saying anything. She lowered her head, letting her tangled hair hide her face.

"Sasuke!" she heard Naruto hiss, but she reached out and touched his hand, shaking her head. He should be glad Sasuke would remember the experience as Naruto fucking him with a side dish of that annoying pink-haired ditz and not as Sasuke making love with his true partner while Naruto played the role of the sex toy.

It hurt.

"Sakura..."

Sasuke knelt on the futon, reaching out to gently tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Don't be stupid. Of course I don't think you're easy. If it wasn't for whatever made us all lose our inhibitions..."

She sighed shakily and wiped her eyes. It helped that Sasuke didn't think badly of her. It didn't that he didn't feel enough for her to reassure her that it had meant something, even though it would have been a lie. Even she, yesterday, had not been able to put any meaning to their wild fucking. It had been just that. Sex. Pretty good sex, but too good to think or feel anything else, anything more... but if he cared, he could have lied a little.

Naruto growled and rolled his eyes, and Sasuke gave him a puzzled glare.

"What?" she saw him mouth.

"Heartless," Naruto mouthed back, glowering fiercely.

"It's okay, Naruto. Really."

Sasuke frowned. "What are you two -- oh."

_/Feh. He gets it quick but you gotta explain for a while./_

"Sakura..."

How she hated that pained, pitying note in his voice.

"Don't lie to me, please." It would be too obvious to help now.

"I wasn't going to," he replied quietly.

/_Lie number one/_ Inner Sakura commented cynically, but Sakura was inclined to believe him. He'd always been blunt to a fault.

"You want me to tell you that what happened is okay because I'm madly in love with you. We both know it didn't. It happened because for some reason, the three of us wanted sex. We had sex. It was wild. It was... nice. More than nice. I don't think it happens to most people more than once in their life."

She nodded, not looking up. She knew all that.

"Sasuke," Naruto grumbled, but he was quickly silenced by a finger across his lips.

"It wouldn't have happened with anyone else."

The quiet certainty in Sasuke's voice made her look up, finally.

"We just happened to be together when it hit," she replied tiredly.

Sasuke shook his head. "Wouldn't have. Like the idiot says... If I had really wanted to, I know I would have pulled free of... whatever it was. I didn't. Because -- with you two..."

He fell silent, and they both looked at him, surprised and wary ... and hopeful, a little. Sasuke never talked about what he felt, apart from hate and contempt. The black-haired boy looked down briefly, then took a deep breath and kept going.

"I'm... safe. Trusted. Both of you. Not anyone else in the world." He gave a half-smirk. "Well, maybe Kakashi."

"Ew."

"So -- if I'd lost control like that around anyone else, I _would_ have pulled out of it. Hell, if it had been anyone else I wouldn't even have drunk anything but water in the first place." But it hadn't been. So he'd stayed.

Well, it wasn't a declaration of love, but it was still good. Wasn't it? Sasuke trusted her, like he trusted none but Naruto, the man who had followed him to hell just to get him out of there. Love was based on trust. There was still hope.

And Naruto loved her. Maybe not as blindly and madly as before, but still tenderly.

"... So things are okay?" she asked quietly.

Sasuke snorted and crossed his arms defensively. "No. I still need to kick Naruto's ass for not even telling us about his fuzzy memories."

Naruto squawked, visibly offended, but somehow managed to restrain himself and not retort anything.

"But afterwards, they will be?" she asked, feeling a shy smile tilt the corners of her mouth upward.

"... Sure."

He looked at Naruto, then back at her, and shrugged, embarrassed, and said it like a challenge.

"We're a team, after all."


	2. Sasuke : The Shit Hits the Fan

Thanks to JoIsBishMyoga for the beta job! Any mistakes still left are mine.

And wow, we're going into action now. So weird. I'm not used to writing it. The romance will have to take a back seat for a little while.

**Chapter 2: The Shit Hits the Fan**  
(Sasuke)

"We're a team, after all."

And they wouldn't get another word out of him on the subject. He just couldn't-- there was no way he would babble on about that a second longer. How was it that they didn't _know_, that he had to _tell_ them?

How was it that Sakura could be so calm and objective -- sometimes even ruthlessly rational -- on missions, and yet still react like this? If she started to cry he would ... He would... He didn't know what he would do, which was why he hoped so hard she wouldn't. And if they kept going on about their goddamn emotions, eventually the conversation would drift to his own feelings toward her... Sakura was his teammate, and his friend, and one of the rare human beings he still cared about -- he did love her, in a way. But he was aware that it was not the way she wanted to be loved, and he wasn't quite enough of a bastard to tell her so bluntly.

So he waited, and watched his girl teammate in her cocoon of blankets, looking too vulnerable with her bare shoulders peeking out and the rest of her body curled up underneath. There were shadows under her eyes, and her tangled hair hung limply, and he didn't like that; he didn't like her looking so raw, so exposed.

At last, Sakura nodded, and her expression relaxed a little; Sasuke sighed, looking away from her to give her a minute to compose herself.

From underneath his bangs, Naruto was discreetly glancing at her, and then at him, and back at her, like a puppy who's not sure he did something wrong but is looking sorry all the same, just in case. He was covered in scratches and bite marks, though Sasuke could have sworn that this particular set of scratches on his hip had been bleeding last night; he remembered well, he had licked it clean--uhm.

Naruto's hipbones really weren't that interesting. No, really, they weren't. Why was Sasuke staring?

... There was a lot to stare at. A lot more than when they had been kids, that was for sure. Broad chest, wide shoulders... six-pack? Huh, that was new. ... Tattoo? When had Naruto gotten a tattoo around his bellybutton? It was faded, as if old, and hard to see clearly -- the symbols around the main spiral were impossible to read -- but Sasuke didn't remember seeing it before.

And he was still ogling and he should stop before his eyes drifted anymore south, but he couldn't.

Naruto was a natural blond.

He was in the process of pretending it hadn't happened when there was a loud knock at the front door.

_"Naruto! Open the door."_

Sakura yelped, and the boys jumped on their feet. What was Kakashi-sensei doing here?

And Sasuke didn't like the tone of his voice or the urgency in that knocking.

_"Naruto__! Are you there?" _

Kakashi was trying the handle now. It was locked, but seeing his determination, it wouldn't stay that way for long.

Clothes. Now. There was no way Sasuke would let his teacher see him naked, especially not the waking-up-after-a-good-hard-fuck kind of naked. He rolled off the bed, grabbed his shorts and put them on, and then, just because they were in reach, he threw Naruto his awful orange pants. Sakura's dress was nowhere in sight.

He was still looking for the dress when the front door was kicked open.

Naruto was hopping rather ridiculously on one foot as he tried to get his other foot in his pants when Mitarashi Anko strode in the bedroom, followed at a more leisurely pace by Kakashi-sensei and Sarutobi Asuma. Which meant the three jounin had a rather good frontal view of his body and the love bites decorating it. Sasuke tried not to curse the too-slow moron. After all, with Sakura still naked under the blanket and the distinctive smell in the messy room, they didn't need a clearer picture to know what had just happened.

Asuma took his ever-present cigarette off his lips and winced. "... Well."

Sasuke tensed up. Something was wrong. That reaction -- three Jounins charging into Naruto's apartment -- it didn't fit. If they had been mistaken, if, for some reason, they'd been worried about one of them being in danger, the fact that Team Seven had only been fraternizing should have been a relief.

None of them looked relieved.

The adults were staring at the three of them, especially Naruto, who had finally managed to get his pants on, and Sakura, whose scarlet face clashed horribly with her hair. Anko looked angry and a little bit disgusted, Asuma was having trouble masking his sheer disbelief, and Kakashi ... Too blank. Sure, an eye didn't express a lot, but exactly because it was hard to look at his face for clues, Sasuke had learned to interpret the slightest narrowing of Kakashi's eye, the barest frown.

Kakashi looked like Zabuza had come into their lives again. A sort of "I really don't WANT to fight that guy, but I must. And someone's going to die and it won't be me" expression, serious and sad and determined. And pissed off by the fate that made such a waste necessary.

Sasuke's bad feeling wasn't getting any better. It didn't match. It just didn't. Disbelief, Sasuke could accept. But a woman so blatant about her sexuality shouldn't have reacted like a preachy spinster. And Kakashi...

Kakashi wouldn't look at him. The gray-haired man exchanged a quick glance with Asuma, and then lifted his hand to quiet Anko when she opened her mouth. Sasuke was sure he didn't want to hear what she had been about to say. Her contempt-filled glare was clear enough.

"Sakura, get dressed and go with Asuma. Sasuke, go home. Naruto, we have to talk to you."

Kakashi turned to leave the bedroom, catching Anko's shoulder to pull her out after him. The woman glowered, but followed, and Asuma closed the door after them.

Naruto's hands balled into fists, and he glared hotly at the door. Once again, his eyes flashed crimson as he growled angrily.

"What right do they have to barge in like that--"

"_Naruto, _calm down" Sakura pleaded between her clenched teeth.

Sasuke was mildly relieved to see Naruto's eyes return to their usual color and the pupil abandon that slit cat-eye shape. He didn't know why that was happening -- Naruto had no special bloodline as far as anyone knew -- but he did know that he didn't want either of the teachers to see.

"Calm down."

"But they -- how dare they --"

Sasuke shook his head, scowling. "I don't think it's about that. Something's going on. Keep your cool."

Naruto huffed, but a look at Sakura's tense expression and white-knuckled grip on the blanket made him settle down.

He found Sakura's dress eventually, but the seam was ripped, as if someone had lowered her zipper all the way down as quickly as possible and then kept going. He gave it to her anyway, along with a length of rope to tie it closed around her waist. Naruto looked into his dresser and pulled out a large, orange sweater, which he offered to her. Ordinarily, she would have screamed bloody murder to be dressed in that horrible, flashy color, but she looked too mortified to protest.

Sasuke didn't even think of looking away while she was changing. After everything that had happened between them, it seemed stupid to bother. And neither of them was in a state to watch her lithe body or her small, perky breasts, or the fact that her hair color was apparently natural -- okay, perhaps he was looking. He hadn't been aware he had hormones, but after yesterday night, it was like they were still lurking in a corner of his brain. He'd been right; emotional and physical entanglement made you lose your focus. Damn it. 'Concentrate, Sasuke,' he berated himself, 'or you'll end up a second Kakashi.' He gave them both a stern look that he privately thought he deserved more than they did.

"We stay calm. We listen to what they want."

We share the info later, he mouthed silently. He was pretty sure the adults were listening in. His teammates both seemed to get it, because they nodded.

"I'm still pissed off that they barged in like that," Naruto grumbled, but his eyes stayed sky blue.

"They must have a reason," Sakura commented softly. "They must think that it's good enough to justify it."

Neither wondered out loud if that reason would be good enough for them.

"Sakura, are you done?"

She was tucking a few kunai under her shirt. Naruto frowned, and went to help her, slipping his hands under the sweatshirt casually to angle the blade so they wouldn't be seen. Sasuke saw her blush, but she didn't protest.

Sasuke approved. She had the right idea. Something bad was going on, and it couldn't hurt to be armed. He got his own weaponry back from where it had spilled from his pouch, regretting that he had only been carrying his usual kunai and small shuriken.

"Okay," Sakura said after taking a deep breath.

Naruto leaned toward her and kissed her lips gently. She closer her eyes, a fleeting expression of gratefulness on her face.

Contrary to the two boys who responded with anger and or aggression, Sakura responded to emotional upheavals by stress. None of them knew where Asuma would take her nor why, and she needed the support. His decision made, Sasuke strode forward and touched her shoulder gently, and when she turned toward him, he brushed his lips against the corner of her mouth just like Naruto had done.

"We're a team," he whispered quietly, reminding them both -- as much as reminding himself -- that they had backup. They had guarded his back so many times without conditions. He was not about to abandon them, even though the teachers' orders made him pretty sure that, whatever was going on, his teammates were in a lot deeper than he was.

Blushing slightly, Sakura leaned against him, and Naruto punched his shoulder gently. He punched him back, his other hand patting Sakura's back awkwardly. He hated, HATED these emotional occasions, but for some reason he didn't move away.

Kakashi knocked briskly at the door once again, ending the moment.

"Are you ready?"

Abandoning them, Naruto opened the door, his chin lifted up stubbornly.

"Yeah. Now what do you want?"

Asuma gave his still bare chest a dubious glance, but didn't comment.

"Sakura, come with me," he asked quietly. He was trying for a reassuring look, Sasuke could see it, and looked more embarrassed and worried than angry. He was a better choice to accompany Sakura to wherever they wanted her to be than Mitarashi Anko, because the bitch was still glaring at her as if she was something disgusting she had found on the bottom of her sandal. Sasuke was starting not to care very much about the discrepancy between her attitude and the situation.

Sakura nodded quietly and after a nervous look at Naruto and Sasuke, she followed the bearded man out, burrowing in the too-large orange sweatshirt for reassurance.

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a long look, and then Sasuke stepped toward the door. He would have asked what was going on, but he already knew that he wouldn't be told. Kakashi-sensei had his stubborn "this is grownup stuff" frown firmly on.

He ignored Anko as he walked past her. He wouldn't have minded slamming her against the wall and promising a painful beating if she ever dared to look at Sakura like that again, but he didn't fancy being reported to the ANBU; he knew that, while officially forgiven, he had been under watch since his desertion to Orochimaru, and it wasn't about to stop. That, and Anko would probably keep doing it anyway just to spite him, because she had too much will and not enough sense to know when she was outclassed.

He walked out of the building slowly, casually, as if nothing special had ever happened in that small apartment, and as if twinges of pain for every step he took didn't remind him how forcefully Naruto had slammed into him last night. And the seam of his shorts chafed against his abused butt -- FUCK! His boxers were still on top of Naruto's chest of drawers. No wonder he felt a draft. He hoped Kakashi wouldn't notice any embarrassing stains.

Forcing the soreness -- and what had caused it-- out of his mind, he slipped in the shadows of a small backstreet, letting his clone go on to the Uchiha estate. Copying the Kage Bunshin had been well-worth the embarrassment at borrowing Naruto's signature move. None of the ninja lurking in the shadows would be able to tell it wasn't really him.

Now, to find a good vantage point to see what was going on in Naruto's apartment...

He found out quickly enough that the only place that let anyone get a view of Naruto's living room was on top of a small tower, three blocks away. Even with a long-distance vision jutsu, he would have trouble seeing well enough to read their lips.

The storage room at the top of the tower was occupied.

It wasn't a habitation -- it was too small, drafty and bare to be lived in -- but it did show signs of frequent use. If Sasuke judged by the Chuunin leaning on the windowsill and staring in the direction Sasuke happened to be interested in, he wasn't the only one who wanted to know what was going on in that flat.

It was easy enough to climb the other side of the building, avoiding the few traps, and to take place on the roof, just above the man who was spying on Naruto.

He didn't know why his teammate was under surveillance, but all signs pointed out that it had been going on for a while. Way before last night happened. That Chuunin looked too boredly watchful for it to be anything but routine.

Maybe the surveillance had something to do with the distrust and hate of most adults toward Naruto. Maybe there was more to that sleepwalking thing than he wanted them to believe.

Maybe it was about the strange tattoo on his belly. Because, now that he thought about it, those symbols reminded him way too much of the symbols Kakashi had drawn on the floor to control the curse Orochimaru had placed on him.

So... One of Naruto's abilities was sealed, and it made people hate him, and his eyes go red, and his mind shift into a sort of feral state...

Maybe that was why there were no other Uzumakis in the village. But that was only suppositions so far; he didn't know enough to be sure either way. It was the only explanation that came to him, but that didn't mean it was the right one; they had been taught to avoid that trap at the very beginning of their ninja training. He decided to think when he would have more information, and concentrated on trying to read on Naruto's lips; his blond teammate was the only one Sasuke could see, and not so well because he was pacing angrily.

Waitasecond. Had he seen right? He mouthed the words he'd read on Naruto's lips.

"What the fuck... mean, kyu ... rut ?! "

Naruto had been in rut? Like-- animals did?

Whatever made him different was of an animal nature then-- he remembered that the Inuzuka brat was particularly desperate for a date at some periods so it wasn't so exceptional a behavior amongst the advanced bloodlines of the village... And they had never known anyone of Naruto's clan, so who was to say it wasn't natural?

Except that... For animals, rut equaled reproduction.

Reproduction of something -- a particularly dangerous bloodline limit would be one of the possibilities -- that they hated and feared.

-- Reproduction

... Sakura.

That was why they had taken Sakura away.

Jumping from the roof, he promptly circled the areas the ANBU had followed him through earlier, taking care to stay close to the walls and take the narrower streets so that he couldn't be spied on from the tower. Naruto was big enough to deal on his own for a little while; Kakashi seemed to want to talk, not drag him away and throw him in prison, anyway. First, Sasuke needed to find their teammate and make sure she was okay.

From a gesture Kakashi had made during the discussion about Sakura -- that he was sure had been deliberate -- he had a clue as to the general direction, but he didn't know more than that. If they had been in the forest, he could have followed her tracks or located her chakra easily enough, but they were in the middle of a fairly big village where almost everyone had developed their chakra abilities. It made pinpointing her location very difficult.

Discreetly, he asked shopkeepers around, but he couldn't find anyone who had seen Asuma and Sakura walk past (that, and it was hell to leave the Yamanaka flower shop once Ino had caught sight of him). After the fifth negative answer he allowed himself to glower angrily at every passerby he happened to cross paths with. His instincts were telling him that Sakura needed help and -- he'd just reaffirmed their team bond. He just wasn't allowed to drop it and go home.

Scowling, he stomped around the corner to go to the next street.

"Ow-- oh! S-sasuke-kun! "

Big whitish eyes were blinking at him.

"... Hinata," he replied as a salute as the short-haired girl started apologizing profusely for running into him. He didn't know what to say, and he was not in the mood to be social anyway -- wait a second. Her eyes-- the Byakugan! Maybe she had seen something. He grabbed her arm impatiently. "Have you seen--"

"Hey, you let go of her!" snarled Kiba as he stalked toward them from the other side of the street. "What the hell's gotten into you, Uchiha?"

"Shut up, dog-boy", Sasuke threw back at the quickly advancing teenager before turning to the girl he was still holding. "Have you seen Sakura?"

Hinata gaped at him, startled by his change of attitude. "Um-- no... That is-- I don't think so, I... Why? Is there a problem?"

Sasuke sighed, aggravated, and shook his head sharply. "No matter." He stepped away, letting her go, just as Inuzuka finally joined them.

"Why're you such a jerk-- uhh?"

He saw Kiba's nose wrinkle and his slit eyes widen slightly, and bit back a curse as he remembered that he hadn't showered yet. No doubt as to what -- who -- dog-boy had smelled on him. Damn it. Like he wanted the whole village to know!

"Oh-- wow, what the hell..."

"Inuzuka," Sasuke hissed warningly.

The imbecile was staring at him, and Sasuke let his eyes flash red for a second, welcoming the sharp clarity of things and purposes the Sharingan gave him.

He had been intending to remind Kiba that he wasn't in the mood to hear remarks on his bedroom activities, but Kiba wasn't as disgusted by the strong scent of sex on him, or by the fact that there was a male's scent, as Sasuke would have believed. In fact, he looked kind of... scared.

"Inuzuka!" he repeated, his tone sharp. Kiba blinked and considered him warily, but he seemed to have snapped out of it. "Have you seen Asuma or Sakura?"

"No," the other boy growled, his lower lip jutting out. It reminded him of the way Naruto would pout when he was feeling stubborn. What Sasuke wouldn't give to have that idiot here, now. Naruto knew how to talk to Kiba. That, and Kiba didn't still resent the blond for the Orochimaru fiasco.

"Kiba-kun," a soft voice interrupted their glaring contest. To be frank, Sasuke had forgotten that the Hyuuga was even there the second she admitted she couldn't help. "W-whatever it is, I'm sure it's important for Sasuke-kun. Couldn't you help...?"

Help? Oh, right! His dog. It could track Sakura. He covered up his hope as he looked down at the other half of the pair, now about thigh-high, too heavy for his master to carry around anymore. The white ninja-dog was watching him just as warily as his master did, ears flattened back on his skull. Kiba looked as unconvinced as his mutt. They were way too alike, really. What the hell were they waiting for?

"... Please." He forced the words out, angry that he had to resort to pleading for help. But as superior a ninja as he was, they still had specialties that he didn't.

Kiba snorted, but the white-eyed girl was looking at him hopefully, encouragingly -- waiting for him to prove that he could be mature and get past his resentment. In the end, Inuzuka turned around -- Sasuke suspected more because he didn't want to disappoint the girl than because it was 'the right thing to do'. Kiba put a hand on the back of his dog and they started to trot up the street, nose to the wind.

Hinata gave Sasuke a shy, encouraging little smile, but didn't comment. Staring at the ground intently, Sasuke allowed a quiet "Thanks" to slip out of his mouth. Hinata was a much nicer person than he would ever be.

She shook her head no, jogging at his side on Kiba's heels. "Don't worry about it. We want you to find Sakura-chan, too."

Sasuke expected her to ask what was going on, but she didn't. He looked away, concentrated on scanning the crowd. He didn't like being in debt, especially to someone who didn't even think about asking anything in exchange.

"Got it," Kiba announced after a few minutes. Sasuke drew closer, following as they sped up.

"... There. Scent trail goes right down that staircase and to the door."

They were on a footbridge, three blocks away from the Hokage's cliff, and Kiba was pointing at the small square facing the large office building that housed the village's administration. Nodding sharply, Sasuke readied himself to jump on the tiles of a roof under the bridge and keep going alone, but a hand closed on his sleeve, startling him enough to make him pause.

"Wait!"

The boys turned back, blinking at the Hyuuga girl. There were veins bulging around her eyes, making her pixie-like face ugly. She pointed through the buildings, to a side of the place hidden by the corner of the street. If Sasuke's memory wasn't messing up, the Village Council usually gathered there.

"There are people -- that's my father! And -- and Akimichi-san, and your mother, Kiba, and Tanaka-san--"

Heads of clans, Sasuke realized as he listened with dread to the names the girl listed shakily. Oh fuck.

"--and there are Kurenai-sensei and Asuma, over in the corner, but I don't see Sakura-chan there... Sasuke-kun, what happened?" she asked him, worried and frowning.

"Can't tell you," he replied honestly," I don't have a clue myself." He quieted them both with a sharp gesture of his hand, or maybe it was the kunai he was holding suddenly. "If you see Naruto, tell him we're here. Thank you for your help."

He leaped away, slipping unnoticed past the chuunins guarding the building.

Infiltrating the building proved easier than it should have been, even with his usual high quality Henge. The secretaries and the chuunin were chattering quietly, worriedly; from a few conversation he overheard, no one really knew what was going on, but something was indeed going on. He didn't like it, he really didn't. He tried to think it didn't have anything to do with their problem, but his usual pessimism said otherwise.

Maybe he should have brought Hinata along. He didn't know where to start searching, and he wouldn't be allowed to stalk through the corridors long before someone thought of asking him where he was going.

So where the hell would have Asuma taken her? It sounded important enough to call for a Council meeting, he reasoned, so... maybe he should go visit the higher-ups first and work his way down. If he came close enough, he would feel her anyway.

Surprisingly, he didn't have to search very long. He was reaching out to push the door of the Hokage's office when he heard Sakura's name. It wasn't in the office, but close. He slipped through the corridor silently, following the sound.

There were two ninjas standing by a door at the other end of the corridor, luckily more interested in what happened inside than out. Sasuke stayed behind the corner, listening.

Ah! His teammate's voice. And-- Hokage-sama's?

"--Sorry, Sakura," the older woman said gravely. "I'll try to help any way I can, but even I can't go against the whole council armed with only my gut feeling."

There was a moment of silence and Sasuke strained to listen in, but really, there was nothing to hear -- and then he heard his teammate's breath hitch.

"May I see my mother?"

She sounded scared, still holding together by pure force of habit. Sasuke felt a surge of protectiveness flood him.

"I'm sorry." Tsunade repeated, almost gently. "You are to be kept in isolation until... Until."

With a last murmur, just a little too low for him to make out, the Hokage exited the room. She looked... grim. Dead serious. A bit pissed off, too.

She didn't seem to notice his presence, but she noticed the guards at the door, and snapped at them harshly. Something about not being trusted to defend herself against a genin, when she was the Hokage-- but Sasuke didn't really care what she said, and he didn't care if such an oversight was or was not deliberate, because when Tsunade bitched at the guards, none of them were looking his way, and the door was still slowly swinging closed...

A quick burst of speed -- all Taijutsu, so he wouldn't alert them by using chakra -- and he was inside the small room. The door clicked shut behind him, not even a second later.

He stayed unmoving, not breathing, as the argument kept on going-- but farther and farther away from the door. The guards were following Tsunade.

"Sakura," he whispered urgently, eyes searching the room for anything that might help an eventual escape. "Did you..."

He had intended to ask her if she'd noted the guards outside and the weak points in the building's security, if she knew what they wanted yet... but when he saw her, he couldn't. Because she looked terrified, shell-shocked. More than the first time they'd seen real fight, faced a real risk of death, more than the time they'd faced Orochimaru for the first time and he'd let them felt his intent to kill.

"... Sakura?"

His back hit the wall when she threw herself at him. She wasn't even crying, just sobbing, choking dryly. He froze, for a few seconds, and then lifted his arms and held her tight, because that was what he was supposed to do in these cases, wasn't it? Or was it slapping?

But she wasn't hysterical. She was scared. And since it wasn't any immediate threat, he was going to let her get some of it out of her system so she could function better later. Making her ignore such distress was only recommended when in the middle of a fight, with no other choice. Right? He would let her cry a little -- it was just going to cost him a wet shirt and a few minutes of uncomfortable physical closeness and-- and fuck, who was he trying to pretend for? He didn't have a clue what to do.

He held her tighter. It may have been too tight for comfort, but she didn't protest.

"Sakura, tell me what's wrong."

He didn't ask. He commanded her, because if he was to fix it, he needed to know what the matter was.

"P-pregnant," she managed to stutter, struggling to bring her breath under control. Then she started shaking.

Sasuke gritted his teeth. That fitted with what he'd managed to overhear. They didn't want Naruto to breed. But it was odd how they'd known mere hours after the fact... before they'd even checked out the room, in fact. Wasn't it supposed to take a little longer than that before a pregnancy could be confirmed? He wasn't sure, school was too far away.

"That's your--" No, he had to think supportive team sappy stuff, "--our problem. What's theirs?"

She twitched. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly to get that glazed look out of her eyes.

"Haruno Sakura, concentrate! Did they say why?"

She shuddered, pushed away from him.

"Yes. Yes, they told me. You shouldn't be here, Sasuke-kun. Leave. Go home." 'Forget me and save your own ass' was left unsaid.

Sasuke hissed. "Like fuck I will."

There was silence for a little while longer as he waited for her to reply, but she didn't, keeping her eyes lowered and trying to pull out from his hold. Except now he was feeling stubborn and refused to let her go.

"Why don't they want Naruto to have children?"

She answered. He heard it wrong. He made her repeat.

She mumbled it again.

"Because he's Kyuubi no Youko."

His first response was laughter. But it sounded weird, would have sounded weird even if he'd been used to laughing at jokes more often, so he stopped. There was no way in hell Naruto -- bouncy, loudmouthed, clumsy Naruto-- was the Kyuubi. "No."

He must have sounded harsh, harsher than usual, because she flinched badly. She was already too pale for her color to change much, though.

"He is-- well, he's NOT, Tsunade-sama said, not really -- but she says he's its vessel -- that the Kyuubi is sealed inside him, except Tanaka Watanabe-san said there was no Naruto, that it was just the youko pretending to be a normal boy waiting for the day the seal would finally disappear for good -- Kagami Akindo-san said the seal was fading, and no one understands what the Fourth did with the seal and maybe-- maybe-- no one knows what it does and how and maybe--"

"How can you?" Sasuke hissed. "How can you believe for one second that Naruto is not real? He's risked his life for yours more times than you can count. He's laughed with you, whined at you, played pranks on you, LOVED you -- he fucking loves you and don't you dare, don't you DARE tell me he's not real because --"

because he could see those eyes -- those red, slit eyes -- facing him, and Naruto's obnoxious voice shifting into a low, mocking growl -- 'Are you scared, Sasuke-kun?' -- red eyes and fangs and an outraged, betrayed snarl -- 'If that's what it takes then I'll break your legs and carry you back home!' -- and they were fighting to the death and he hated himself and yet, there was a grim satisfaction, a dark pleasure in the pain he felt in betraying everything he loved -- fighting -- being beaten -- dragged home, dragged by Naruto, beaming Naruto despite the blood and the broken jaw and the chakra burns, Naruto and his brilliantly sky-blue eyes and so much happiness at having Sasuke back with him, even by force -- and the overwhelming certitude that all would be okay, that if Naruto willed it to be okay, then it would be, so long as Sasuke stayed with him.

And Sasuke had stayed. And it hadn't been okay for the longest time, but Naruto had hung around, Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi, and eventually, he'd stopped hating Naruto for stopping him. And he would never leave Konoha again, because Naruto would always be here to fetch him back if he ever tried it, so there wasn't any use tiring himself out by thinking about it. Unless he was willing to kill Naruto -- and he wasn't, he was never going to be his brother -- betraying Kohona would never bring him anything else but a swift beating, and like that -- with Naruto making sure of that -- it was easier to resist the temptation to seek power elsewhere.

And it didn't matter if Naruto's eyes were red or blue or fucking gold with pink polka dots. It just _didn't_. Because he could not disappear. Especially not by being eaten from the inside by some stupid, mangy furball that had gotten its ass kicked by the Fourth over seventeen years ago.

Sakura had the grace of looking ashamed. "... Right. You're right. I'm panicking. I'm sorry. I don't really believe Naruto can be -- not real. I just..."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her, and then sighed and tried to calm down. She was distraught, understandably so after learning that she was pregnant and Naruto -- the man who'd gotten her in that state -- was ... not like everyone else.

It's just like an advanced bloodline, he repeated to himself, trying not to wonder about how the seal worked, not to think about how it had seemed to be faded that one time he'd seen it. Kakashi-sensei trusted Naruto, and the Hokage, and that white-haired Sennin geezer, and they were all old and powerful and knowledgeable enough to know if they should or not. Tanaka didn't know Naruto personally, he didn't have a fucking clue what he was talking about, and who was Kagami Akindo-san to criticize the Fourth Hokage's work? Before his marriage into the Kagami ninja clan, he'd been nothing but a fat-ass businessman. He had no business acting like he knew about ninja stuff when he had only ended up clan head by accident.

"But he still could -- that is, the seal... it's been over seventeen years after all! Who heard of an active seal lasting this long? It could be weakening... "

"It's not."

"Then how do you explain the whole thing yesterday night? How do you explain how he gets in battle sometimes? How do you--"

"He's always gotten like that in battle, and if you remember right, it was always to save our lives. And that night -- well, maybe it's just that he was too young before!" he snapped, trying not to think about the haze of pleasure-desire-belonging that had overtaken him the night before.

"Ah," Sakura protested, her eyes blazing in challenge for a second before fear dulled them again, "but he also said it happened more and more often to him, that he sleepwalked and --"

"He said he could pull out of it anytime he wanted. Don't you believe him?"

"I believe he DOES believe it! But what if he's wrong? What if --"

He speared her with the coldest look he could muster.

"_I _believe that he's trusted us with everything he has, everything he is, countless times over, just like you and me and everyone we know had to trust him at some point, and your doubting his abilities is an insult to him. He's the most stubborn idiot on the planet and there's no way he would let it happen. That's what I believe."

Sakura beat her fists against his chest, tears brimming in her eyes. "I believe in him too! But I just don't know who is _him _anymore, okay? I can't think, everything's jumbled and I need some space and I can't get ANY and I want to _leave_ and _sleep _-- and-- and..."

Slapping her seemed a more and more tempting course of action, but he couldn't bring himself to lift his hand and hit her, as much as he'd heard that it was good for hysteria, because if he started hitting her --or anyone-- for good reasons...

"You're hysterical. Take a deep breath and think, instead of letting your paranoia drive you."

She snarled at him, furious and desperate, and under that, an anger of a strength he had not believed she could possess.

"You don't understand! I'm pregnant with Kyuubi no Youko's spawn! And they-- the council -- they think it's controlling him, they're not ALL clueless about how a seal works and they think -- that I'm bearing a new vessel for IT, and then-- then -- it will rip itself out of N-Na-- its current vessel and into a new one-- my b-b-baby-- and there will be no seal on that one and we'll die and I'll die first and we'll all die and--and--"

There was a pained whimper over them, on the other side of the bars blocking the skylight.

Naruto was crouching there, on the roof, looking down at them.


	3. Naruto : Escape

Whee! So happy. Never thought this fic would get more than ten reviews.

Just so you know, I love everyone who reviewed. I honestly do. The response has me floored and I usually spend a few minutes squealing over each of them.

...Except the ones coming from people who've reviewed just to tell me they wished it was a different pairing like pure NaruSaku or NaruHina, or they don't like Sakura or Sasuke. Guess what? I do not care enough about your pairings preferences to entirely rewrite a plot that I invented for MY favorite threesome. Please stop telling me how much better my story would be if I concentrated on YOUR favorite couple, because if it was anything else than NaruSasuSaku, The Plot Would Just Not Work.

**Chapter 3: Escape**  
(Naruto)

For a few seconds, there was nothing in his world but Sakura-chan's frightened green eyes and the echo of her words.

They know now, he thought dully. They know and they're going to hate me. My teammates, my friends, my mates -- _/MINE/_ -- and they're going to hate me, fear me, just like everyone else...

From deep inside him, rising from his belly, came the tidal wave of an anger that made him shake. _/These old bastards think I'd do WHAT to my cubs?/ _They thought -- they didn't know-- how could they even _suggest_ -- he wanted to _kill them_-- no, he didn't, but he did want to beat them up bloody. Yes, imagining all the old, hateful, stupid Council members piled up bleeding and bruised helped. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

Sasuke had his arm around Sakura's shoulder and they were both staring up at him. Sakura-chan's eyes were reddened and puffy and scared, and he wanted to ask her who had done that to her so he could beat them up, but there was a good possibility he was the one who put the fear there.

He couldn't read Sasuke's eyes at all.

"Is the window linked to an alarm?" Sasuke snapped.

"Uhh-- yeah," Naruto managed to answer after a few seconds of confusion. "I don't know how to untangle that. There are wires and a spell tag, too..."

"Don't bother. Tear it out."

"We'll be surrounded by Jounin in under two minutes!" Sakura protested.

"That's gonna happen anyway," Naruto chirped back, forcing a friendly, amused smile on his face. "I kind of -- ah-- left a bit early from the discussion, you know."

Which was to say he'd slammed Anko through three walls and imbedded the ANBU guy watching outside in the pavement before running off. His landlord was going to kill him.

"Then hurry," Sasuke hissed, glancing back at the door behind him. "They're going to want her soon."

Naruto looked at Sakura in askance. What he wanted to do was to take them both and run, but he knew that he had a bad tendency to react to things without thinking ahead, and maybe disappearing would make it -- whatever it was -- worse.

But maybe staying nicely put would only make it easier for the Council to hurt the people he loved, lock him up and whatnot.

He wanted to take them and leave. Now. /_And raze the town to the ground./_

His smile froze on his lips and he shook his head. Sorry, old fox, there would be no town razing right now.

Well, that was if the Jounin didn't find him and attack, forcing him to destroy everything to escape. Since he really didn't want to deal with that possibility, he tore the whole window frame out of the roof, with the bars and the glass and everything, and reached down to help his teammates out.

Sakura was still unsure, he could see it, but Sasuke's hands closed on her hips and he lifted her, and then, by an old habit, she automatically reached up for Naruto's hand, her feet pushing against Sasuke's chest to help the boys lift her up. She could have jumped easily, but helping her -- he liked that better.

It felt like a mission, now, act first and think later, and he barely watched as she smoothly rolled away from the window, her back to him to scan the surroundings warily, trusting her to keep her position. He reached through the skylight again to help Sasuke out.

The black-haired boy barely needed a hand, but he still grabbed Naruto's, and maybe it was wishful thinking that he'd held on a bit tighter, a bit longer than usual, but it was a relief anyway. He wasn't too disgusted to touch Naruto. Everything that had gotten bumped and twisted in that mess -- they could mend it.

"Jounin incoming!" Sakura warned them, her voice tense, but cold and determined too.

The guys were damn quick. Sakura was fast, but not that fast, and moved like she was still sore from last night. Naruto and Sasuke jumped on their feet and, together, grabbed a handful of her orange sweater and leaped away. She tried to move with them, but it was visible that moving her legs hurt her.

Sasuke gave Naruto a quick look, and flung Sakura on his back. "I'll cover -- Sakura, navigate!"

Naruto ran, with Sakura's arms around his neck and her knees squeezing his hips, following her directions, and trying to think only about running as fast as possible down the routes she indicated, and not about the barrages of kunai raining on them, and what would happen if Sasuke couldn't block them in time. They dashed through busy streets, jumped over roofs and darted down footbridges, the jounin still hot on their tail.

"We'll never get rid of them!" Sakura shouted in his ear to make herself heard against the wind. "Kage Bunshin! As many as you can!"

Naruto nodded grimly and, as he leaped from a building into the marketplace, quickly formed the seals.

The vendors were going to hate him even more than before, he thought with a wide, sharp-toothed grin -- and then there were about three hundred Narutos, some with Sakuras on their backs, some not. It was a deep pull on his chakra, but for once Kyuubi was gracious about lending him more. He transformed some of his clones into Sakuras and Sasukes with a Henge, flooding the busy marketplace with Team Seven members.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke imitating him. He suppressed a smirk when his teammate only managed about fifteen of them. Naruto would so tease him later. Right now, though, it was more important to dodge the attacks coming from the jounin chasing them and, unsurprisingly, the furious vendors and customers.

A few housewives started to scream, scarred by the memory of his pranks and the knowledge of what he could do, and he had to dodge a harpy that came at him with a trout. On his back, Sakura choked on an incredulous laugh. Reminded that he hadn't eaten yet, Naruto felt like stealing it, but he had a feeling Sakura would object to having to hold a dead fish for him during their escape.

Sasuke was still shadowing them as Naruto ran out of the marketplace, imitated by a good two-third of the surviving clones. They had their orders to spread and leave the town from all possible directions, so the people chasing them would lose time trying to find them.

Naruto and his teammates were almost at the wall when he felt about fifty of the clones disappear in quick succession. Naruto glanced at Sasuke in askance, the weight of their pink-haired teammate on his back just enough of a bother that he didn't want to lose a second stopping to look behind him.

"Jounin," Sasuke replied curtly, saving his breath as much as possible. "A few ANBU. Went Kage Bunshin on our clones."

They leaped over an old man walking his dog and kept going toward the village wall, channeling chakra in their legs to prepare for the jump.

"Down!"

Sasuke shouldered Naruto out of the way, sending him and Sakura rolling through a hedge and on a lawn. Naruto had to let go of the girl not to crush her under his weight, and when he stopped -- or to be precise, when a wall stopped his head -- he didn't know where she was. There were kunai stabbing the grass all around him, and he dodged a second flurry of weapons, looking around him wildly.

"Sakura-chan!"

There was no blood on the lawn, he noticed, even as he rushed the man who'd been targeting him and punched him through a wall. She couldn't have been hurt -- erk! Naruto froze, with a hand closed around his neck from behind.

"You should keep better track of your teammates," Kakashi commented lazily.

Naruto could smell Sakura, hear her breathe. From the corner of his eye, he saw pink hair and orange cloth, level with Kakashi's shoulder. Their teacher was holding her, had probably snatched her from the lawn a mere instant before the weapons hit the ground. Thank god. She was safe -- but were they, really? Was Kakashi friend or foe right now? He hadn't tried to stop Naruto earlier, when Naruto snarled at him after getting rid of Anko and the guards, but now it was different-- maybe they'd wasted the one chance Kakashi could offer them without being declared a traitor to the village...

"Um, Naruto...?"

He laughed nervously. "Yeah."

There was a clash of steel against steel from the street and Naruto tensed. Sasuke! He was still fighting! But the hold on his neck...

"Kakashi-sensei!" he protested. He didn't want to attack his teacher but he needed to go, _now_, and-- "OW!"

He needed to remind himself that Sasuke was still fighting not to whirl around and try to beat up Kakashi; not that he would have presented much of a danger for the man, what with still being out of balance from the swift kick to the ass he'd just received.

"Bastard!" he growled, even as he kept following the momentum he'd been given, bursting through the hedge and on the street. Kakashi had ways of helping you out that made you wish you'd failed miserably alone instead. At least Sakura was safe for now.

Sasuke was in a low fighting crouch, face to face with an ANBU with a tiger mask. He was holding his stomach, and looked pissed as hell. Fuck fuck fuck. Guy looked strong -- but a second before he noticed Naruto, Sasuke glanced at the blond, and then threw himself at the man head on, distracting him. Sasuke was dangerous enough on his own; the man didn't have enough attention to spare to notice Naruto, who caught him with a knee in the head as hard as he could, knocking out the tiger ANBU. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and jumped back in the garden, out of sight of the street. He -- some part of him -- Kyuubi -- wanted to kill the guy for hurting Sasuke, but that was a bad idea, because they didn't need to be accused of murder on top of the rest, and Sasuke would be furious that Naruto thought he needed to finish off Sasuke's adversaries.

Kakashi was standing, Sakura under an arm like a package, watching them in that bored way of his. She was blushing, holding her torn dress against her thighs.

"... Sensei..."

Sasuke's eyes were red and whirling like windmills, and if he did recognize Kakashi, he didn't seem to care. A kunai flew from his hand, aiming for their teacher's chest. Naruto gasped.

"Are you crazy?!" He protested even as Kakashi dodged to the side, letting the weapon thunk into the wall behind him. Suddenly without support, Sakura stumbled, and only her training let her roll and land in a proper crouch.

"_Run_," Sasuke replied grimly, still targeting their teacher.

He kept narrowly missing, and Naruto wondered faintly why Kakashi was letting himself be driven farther and farther away. Sasuke was good, but as they all knew, not quite good enough yet...

_Think later!/ _Kyuubi roared inside him, his chakra pulsating wildly. Sakura dashed past Sasuke, mouth pinched in pain. Naruto followed on her heels, covering her as she bounced over the hedge and started running. She stumbled, though -- perhaps they should have let her run a bit earlier, she hadn't had any time to work out the soreness; Naruto leaped forward, jerked her up and wound his arm around her waist. "You okay?"

"Fine, just go!"

A few chakra-powered jumps, and he was climbing up the village wall, Sakura hanging on with her teeth clenched.

He stopped at the top of the wall, waiting for Sasuke. The black-haired teen wasn't far behind them, even though he was slower than usual -- or maybe Naruto was so flooded with adrenaline that he couldn't keep track of their usual timing.

They slid down the great wall on the outer side to about halfway down, then let go of the chakra hold and leaped forward. Sakura's fingers tightened on his shoulder as they landed, and she hissed. "Faster! They're on the wall!"

He took the lead, running away from the village, Sasuke still behind him, not even checking to see in which direction he was going. There were bushes and dirt paths, and tall grass, and nothing to hide behind and lose their tail.

And then their path was blocked with a high wire fence, with warning signs all over, crackling with electricity.

"Ack!" He was going too fast to stop, and knew from experience that the power running through the metal links was enough to stun him; there would be no climbing over that, especially not with the jounin closing in. No blasting a hole through it either, since they'd just follow Team Seven through. And it was too high to leap over.

_/Want a leap, boy, then ask a leap specialist_Kyuubi sneered in his mind. _/Not that they're good at much else./_

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Naruto called, sparing a quick, irritated thought for the contempt in the Youko's tone. Kyuubi just could never be helpful without peppering his speech with insults and put-downs -- not that he was anything approaching helpful that often.

He'd never seen that long-legged purple frog before, but it didn't matter; it was more than big enough to carry them over the fence. He snagged Sasuke's arm as he passed, pulled him on the frog's back just as it gathered its legs, and then they were flying, only holding onto the back of his summon because he was too stubborn to let go of its kimono. Sakura's face was hidden against his neck, one of her hands reaching to hold onto the back of Sasuke's shirt; Sasuke had been thrown across Naruto's lap and had absolutely no hold on anything, only their upwards momentum keeping him in place.

For a second it felt like they were floating.

And then they plummeted down, on the other side of the fence, and there was nothing in contact with his summon but the hold he had on the frog's kimono. Sakura screamed once, short and sharp just in his ear, but he didn't blame her. The sensation of freefall twisted his stomach in such a way that he wanted to scream too, with fear and adrenaline, except he would have needed to unclench his jaws and breathe

Sasuke scrambled frantically for something to hold onto, his hands ending up grabbing the frog's obi and the sleeve of Naruto's T-shirt. He shouldn't have bothered; he was between Naruto's body and the frog's; he couldn't go far.

When they landed, the black-haired boy ended up crushed under Naruto and Sakura's weight. There was a muffled, pained whimper. Naruto quickly pushed himself in a sitting position, stunned that Sasuke would ever make that sound, but the frog only stopped the briefest of instants before it shot forward, to the edge of the forest. There was a brutal yank on Naruto's arm as he once again tried to keep them all on their ride.

A few kunai whizzed past, but they were going so fast that they were well hidden behind the gigantic trees of the forest well before any of their hunters could manage to aim properly. They kept bouncing, darting between the trees, rebounding off rocks and bursting through thick foliage, leaving the edge of the forest far behind.

Finally, they came to a stop -- well, the frog did. It halted so sharply that they all tumbled over its head and on the grass. Naruto ended up at the foot of a tree, mostly on his back, except for his legs and butt, propped up against the trunk. Sasuke was sprawled across his chest. _'We must look ridiculous,_' the blond teen thought with a burst of giddy, relieved amusement.

Sakura had landed flat on her front and was still grabbing a handful of his shirt. She let go and pushed herself up on her hands slowly, still frazzled and wide-eyed.

"That was some ride, eh, Sakura-chan?" Naruto commented with a laugh.

"Idiot," she growled back, her expression slowly coming back to normal.

Naruto grinned, and then caught her rubbing her chest, and grinned wider. "Ohoho."

"Don't be a pervert!" she growled, "I smacked flat on the ground, it hurts."

"Aww, if you want, I can give you a hand." Sakura glared harder, but the blooming red on her cheeks indicated she might be flustered enough to let him try! Quick, quick, Naruto needed to jump on the opportunity -- and he was still pinned down. Huh. He nudged Sasuke. The bastard was getting heavy, which was weird for someone as trim as he was. "Oi, you sack of bones, get off me before -- Sasuke?"

Sasuke wasn't moving. Sasuke was limp. Sasuke was not supposed to be limp.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called, her voice wavering as she noticed Naruto's uneasiness.

"... 'm okay." The black-haired boy pushed himself up and off Naruto's chest. But he was moving way too carefully for his teammates to believe him.

"What happened?" Naruto demanded as he kicked away from the trunk, rolled ass over head, and landed in a neat crouch at Sakura's side.

"Nothing. Let's not stay here." Sasuke got on his feet slowly, refusing Sakura's attempts to help him. "Just got hit in the stomach. A little winded. Now, let's _move_."

'Che. Naruto would have carried him, but he knew that the guy wouldn't let him, probably getting himself even more hurt in the process. So he had to make do with keeping a close eye on him. Sasuke was just like him; no matter how much it hurt, he wouldn't accept help before he fell flat on his face and half-knocked himself out, and maybe not even then. Stubborn idiot.

The frog was gone. He regretted it for a second, because it would have been easier to get Sasuke to ride it than to accept being carried, that and usually he liked to at least thank the frogs before he let them go. But he couldn't summon anything else without giving away their location.

Sakura gave a wary look at the dark forest all around them. "We need to find a place to hide."

"We're not stopping on my behalf," Sasuke growled at her, a hand pressed on his stomach.

"Oh, shut up, idiot," Naruto snapped back, aggravated by his macho bullshit.

Sasuke straightened up and glared, and Naruto felt the urge to knock him out just so he didn't risk making his eventual wound worse, even though one part of him was purring with approval at the challenge in his black eyes. What the hell? He knew all about macho displays, having performed more than his share of them, but it didn't mean he thought it was smart. Why couldn't the stubborn bastard admit, just for once, that he was in pain and needed help?

And he had to stop glaring at Naruto so stubbornly, it made biting him until he surrendered sound appealing.

"It wouldn't be only on your behalf, Sasuke-kun," Sakura intervened. She kept watch on the forest, only breaking it to lay a hand on Sasuke's arm and give him a patient look. "We have things to talk about. Here, there will be less people following us, and we can lay traps... But we can't go too far from Konoha, or else they might tag us as missing-nin."

Sasuke calmed slowly at her explanation. She gave him a brave little smile, and then she turned and -- visibly forcing herself -- nodded her approval at Naruto. "It was a pretty good idea to come here, actually."

"Ahh... eh. Thank you, Sakura-chan," he replied, scratching at his blond spikes in embarrassment. He hadn't been thinking when he'd picked the direction; he had just known that he wanted to run until he found a place to hide, someplace he could protect. This forest seemed good enough to him, but he remembered the creatures living in here from their chuunin exam and it wasn't a place for Sakura to wander alone... nor for Sasuke, not in his state. Hell, even Naruto wouldn't feel alright being on anything less than full alert, and he was a lot stronger now than he'd been at twelve.

"So... We should find a place to rest, and then some food, and then..."

He hesitated, glanced at his teammates, and rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants nervously.

"Then we talk," Sakura replied softly.

"... Yeah... Then we talk."

He wasn't looking forward to it.


	4. Naruto : The Talk

Teamwork Naruto POV again because... well, you will see why it needed to be from his point of view. Just to keep it symmetric, next is Sasuke, then Sakura. And then this fic should be finished (unless it decides to mutate on me again) and I can start on the sequels. :-)

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Talk  
(Naruto, again :p) **

A hour or so later, they had found a place to hide. Not ground level, but in an old, huge tree, with wide branches and lots of leaves, practical to hide behind. There was a hollow in the trunk just over a branch, large enough to shelter them, and they had filled it with grass to rest on.

Well, for Sasuke to rest on. Except the stubborn bastard had decided he didn't need a rest, and was actively patrolling their surroundings while Naruto hunted and Sakura lay traps. And when Naruto had tried to get him to at least sit down, he'd been forced to dodge his fist, because Uchiha was in a "I don't answer to anyone" mood.

Son of a bitch.

_It's funnier when they're stubborn,/_ Kyuubi purred as Naruto tracked his prey. Surprised, the boy almost walked on a dry leaf, warning the food. He wasn't used to the demon fox taking such an active interest in what was happening outside, unless his life was in danger.

_'What, you like him all... dominant and stuff?'_ Naruto grumped back, feeling a weird twinge of jealousy. Ah well, it was better than to have the demon hate Sasuke's guts.

_/That's when I want to throw him down on his knees and fuck him the most/_ the fox laughed throatily._ /Dominating a submissive isn't any fun, any challenge. But making someone like him submit, now.../ _

Naruto was getting images, feelings -- the memory of threatening, echoing growls and his front paws around a squirming body, and sharp teeth snapping at his muzzle, adding just a hint of threat to his pleasure ...

_'Erk, get that shit out of my head. I'm not into bestiality,_' he grumbled back, because thinking about the feral pleasure of mounting a clawed, fanged partner who could tear him to pieces if he didn't manage to overwhelm them was making a few rather embarrassing things happen inside his pants, and if he started to think about the feel of fur against him, he was going to be VERY disturbed the next time he was around Kiba and Akamaru.

Kyuubi snorted. _/You're making me lust after furless, fangless, clawless, BIPEDAL humans, boy. It's bestiality to me./_

Naruto decided to ignore his tenant. Most of the time, the conversations he was dragged in left him confused and disturbed. The damn fox thought in a way that should have been alien to him, but somehow, at gut level, wasn't. Some of the ideas he shared, Naruto couldn't dismiss, even though he knew half of the time it was probably just the bored demon-fox trying his hand at manipulation.

It was hard, though, to get out of the mood, because even despite everything that had happened since this morning -- the fear, the confusion, attack, escape -- a corner of his mind was still stuck on the fact that for the first time in his life, he'd had sex. A lot of it.

Thinking about Sasuke and sex was still a little strange, though, not to mention he didn't like how interested the fox got. Kyuubi _ate_ humans, and Naruto was pretty sure catching the demon fox's interest was a bad, bad thing. Maybe if he concentrated on Sakura-chan instead... Sakura-chan who had kissed him and scratched him and ran her hands over him -- him, not Sasuke -- she'd wanted Sasuke too, of course, but she had desired _him_, Naruto, and he still couldn't get over it.

Then he got caught up in remembering the softness of her skin and the way he had molded her body to his, and decided not to think at all while he hunted, because he was tired of catching branches across the face.

Inside his head, Kyuubi was howling with laughter.

* * *

They knew how to light a fire without the smoke rising like a beacon signaling their position, thankfully; Naruto didn't have a problem eating his meat raw, but he knew that he was not in the majority there. Besides, people tended to look at him weird when he tore into bloody flesh hungrily. It made him self-conscious, like he was revealing to everyone how bestial he was.

That and, as disturbingly tasty as raw meat was, it still wasn't ramen.

They ate quietly, not that hungry. Sasuke tried, but then they both saw him wince discreetly and 'misplace' his food down the tree, and Sakura spent the meal nibbling and not really swallowing anything. In the end Naruto was the only one who had a real meal, even if by his standards, it was barely a snack.

Finally he sighed, deciding to let them off the hook. "I'm done. So.."

"...So..."

Sasuke didn't seem to want to start; Sakura frowned, steeling herself, and turned to face Naruto fully. "How come none of us knew ... about ... Kyuubi no Youko? That he wasn't dead and gone, I mean."

"The adults knew," Sasuke commented tonelessly. "The ninja, at least."

Naruto wound his arms around his knees and stared at his feet. "Yeah, they all know, all those who were old enough to understand when he attacked the village. But the Third made 'em swear to shut the hell up and not tell their kids, so I could grow up normally..." He laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "Except they all hate me 'cause they figured I was the Kyuubi reincarnated, and the Fourth Hokage had died because of me, and their kids picked up the 'no-good' part easily enough. So yeah, didn't work so well."

Sakura started nibbling on her lip. "So that's why... Mom was unhappy when she learned you were in a team with me. I thought it was just because you had such a bad reputation as a troublemaker..."

"And are you?" Sasuke asked, watching him.

"Am I what?"

"The Kyuubi."

Naruto wanted to bristle, but Sasuke sounded so carefully neutral that he just couldn't. He sighed, tired of the conversation already. "No. But he's inside me."

For a few seconds his teammates seemed not to know what to say to that.

"... Have you always known?" Sakura asked softly, still not looking up.

"Nah, actually that came late," he replied in as casual a tone as he could manage. "Sure, sometimes I got pissed as hell at the way people treated me, but that -- I don't know if it was his influence, but I don't think I needed him to get angry at being treated like shit."

Sakura fidgeted, a guilty look on her face. Naruto sent her a little smile to reassure her. Compared to most people, she'd been nice, really. And at least when she yelled at him, it was because of _him_, not because of something he couldn't help and was barely aware of.

"I was twelve already when I even learned how I was different. And I didn't even feel _him_ -- as something separate, I mean-- for a few months after that ... The mission with Zabuza. When that moron--" he pointed at Sasuke "--got himself killed. I'd never been so enraged than back then. I wanted to shred Haku to tiny pieces and piss on the remains."

It was hard to say that, because even now, thinking back on the first death he'd ever witnessed -- the first time he'd seen someone he knew and liked die as an enemy -- he still felt sad, and guilty, and furious, and powerless, wanting to save the boy who had tried to teach him something so important. But back then all he could think was that Haku had killed someone who belonged to him, and that wasn't forgivable.

"Even then, it wasn't very strong -- I was just angry, you know? It was hard to really notice that it wasn't only me. That it was so much _bigger_. It sharpened slowly with time, the feelings I got from it -- from him -- but at the same time, it was becoming more... _mine_. Argh, I'm really not explaining right," he added with a grimace.

"His feelings contaminated you?" Sakura replied, alarmed.

Naruto winced. Erk, that was not going well.

"No-- well, yes, but not like that... It's complicated. Sometimes I feel what he feels, yeah, and back then when it was weaker, sometimes it wasn't really strong enough that I'd notice it wasn't me, even when it had nothing to do with what I was feeling at the time. But now-- well, it's different. Easier. Better."

"Easier what?" she demanded, staring at him with wide, wary eyes. "His presence is getting stronger -- and that's _good_?"

"Well, before I had to guess what was mine and what was his, and it was hard, because every time I was feeling something I didn't want, I'd tell myself it was his fault. But now I know when it's mine and when it's his. And when we feel the same way -- well, I can use it."

_/Do you dare make me out to be a useful tool, boy?/ _

Naruto grimaced briefly. That angry growl was definitely not from his feelings, but he had let the fox's presence rise to the forefront during their flight, to be able to use his power in case it was needed, and it was hard to just ignore him now.

"Naruto?" Sasuke called, frowning.

"Ah, nothing. He's just a bitch as far as tenants go, you know," the blond ninja replied with an embarrassed smirk.

"Wait, he talks to you?"

"Uhh, sometimes. Almost never usually -- sometimes I go months without even feeling a twitch. Hell, sometimes I forget he's even there. But since this morning he's been running a commentary. It's annoying as hell," he grumbled, beating down the sense of annoyed offense from the demon-fox.

Sakura still looked disturbed, and Sasuke was watching him with a hint of weirded-out fascination.

"Only you, moron..." the black-haired boy breathed, shaking his head in amazement.

"Who ya calling a moron, bastard?!"

"You. You have a demon inside your head and you call it 'annoying.' I'd hate to see what you call unbearable."

"Hey, it's not like I've got a choice. And what am I supposed to do, curl up and cry? Hide from people -- boohoo, it's so shameful? Hell no. I didn't choose to house the bastard, but now that he's here, I may as well make the most out of it, and if people decide to bug me because of him, then fuck them."

The conversation died then, as they all stared at nothing trying to find something to talk about.

"Your chakra, the way you heal... they're due to-- him, right?" Sakura finally asked.

Naruto nodded, wondering where she was going.

"And the -- the sex thing? It was him too, right?"

Naruto fidgeted.

He'd imagined hundreds of scenarios where he got to make out -- and more -- with Sakura for the last five years; he'd just never wanted to implement them. Mostly because of the possible consequences. That didn't mean the desire hadn't been there. If she rejected him and went to Sasuke, he would be alone. If Sasuke rejected Sakura after that, Sakura would be alone too, and that was even worse; Naruto could take it, but he didn't want to see Sakura hurt. If she _didn't _reject Naruto... Much less likely, true. But if she didn't, then Sasuke would be the odd man out. And what if he left Konoha again? That was just -- no.

As for going to Sasuke and mentioning the fleeting, quickly repressed curiosity that kept mixing with his usual possessive impulses... _'Hey, Sasuke, you're a paranoid, antisocial, strangely hot bastard I can't stand half the time and you know perfectly well I'm in love with Sakura, wanna make out? We might freak, never mention it again but still treat it like the invisible elephant in the room, and spend the rest of our lives disturbed by each other, how's that sound?'_ Yeeeah, right.

"The, um. 'Woohoo, fuck the consequences, let's get freaky' thing? Yeah, that's what Kakashi-sensei told me. Well, that and the alcohol, I guess."

"But it never happened before?"

"Not that I remember," Naruto replied. He saw her glance at his stomach and her eyes briefly look more scared than before. What the hell--

_/She thinks I'm about to escape/_ Kyuubi commented, a note of bitter annoyance in his growl. _/If only./_ Naruto wondered if the fox had meant him to hear the last bit.

"You think the seal is failing, don't you," he commented, trying hard not to look hurt. Sakura wasn't saying she didn't trust _him_. Only that she didn't trust the seal. That was different.

"You said yourself you were getting more access to him," she replied, visibly fighting to keep calm.

"Yeah, I am. But the seal still works just fine."

"How do you _know_?!" she finally erupted, clenching her fists. "You never went into _heat_ before, so _why now_?"

He felt a low laugh rising in his throat and blinked, caught by surprise. He was used to blocking Kyuubi's negative emotions, but it was the first time he was subjected to his extreme, non-bloody amusement.

"What's so funny?!"

She was snarling, now, and he would have ducked by reflex except that she wasn't trying to hit him, and there were tears in her eyes. That was a lot more serious than her usual temper tantrums.

"_Kyuubi_ finds it funny! And I don't know-- oh. He says I was too small for my hormones to get any kind of boost from his."

_/It did come a few times more recently/ _the fox added with relish. _/You just happened to be alone on a mission when it hit. I'm surprised you don't remember, though./_

Naruto blinked owlishly as he tried to guess when that could have happened, and then noticed his teammates staring at him. "Uh, what?"

"He's talking to you now, isn't he?" Sasuke asked softly. He looked weirdly interested.

"Uhh, yeah. He says it happened before, but I was alone so nothing happened." _/Except you chafing your dick from wanking all night long, that is./_ "Except from-- KYUUBI!"

_'You goddamn bitch,'_ he thought, blushing madly.

"What did he say?" Sasuke demanded, nudging him with his foot.

"Nothing!" the blond ninja replied, growling. "He's just laughing at me again. Bastard."

Sakura was looking very, very weirded out.

"Is he listening now?" she asked in a whisper.

Naruto sobered up immediately. "Yes. But I can push him down if you want."

"Yes," she replied, her voice wavering weirdly. "Oh-- but won't he be angry at you? I don't want him to -- to... fight you, or..."

He reached out to caress her cheek gently, feeling the need to reassure her twisting his guts into knots. He was so used to being around legendary ninja masters, mastering chakra-intense techniques and having a demon inside him, that sometimes he forgot how scary it could seem for normal people. Concentrating, he closed the window to the outside he had left to the demon, ignoring his snarls of protest, and gave her an awkward little smile.

"Sakura-chan... He can't _do_ anything to me, okay? Sure, if we're angry at the same thing then it gets a little worse --" Except in case of Sasukes leaving the village, where it turned anger into wrath -- "But I've always had a temper, what's so different? I let him come up sometimes, and sometimes I listen to him, but I don't _have_ to. He can be as pissed at me as he wants, and it won't do anything to me. He can't hurt me worse than a headache and even then I can take a painkiller and be fine; he can't take control, he can't influence me to do something I'd never do otherwise. I just-- well sure he's a monster and all, but sometimes I feel sorry for him. I'd rather be dead than be trapped in someone else, without a body of my own, and not even able to see the outside world. That's why I let him see through my eyes and -- other stuff. But this is _my_ body and I'm the one in control, always."

"... Oh."

She looked mildly relieved now. He felt the knot in his guts relax a little.

"Is he really... as bad as they say? You know, when we are taught about that day, we're not told about the details, just that he attacked and-- and, well. No one taught us much more."

"I doubt anyone got to have a chat with him about his reasons anyway," Sasuke commented sarcastically.

"I never asked. But as far as I know," Naruto replied somberly, "he didn't have any."

He couldn't stand the horror in Sakura's eyes. He looked away.

"He's -- not human. He thinks killing unarmed civilians is a good way to relieve tension, and killing high-level ninja is _fun_. For him, humans are prey. _Were_ prey. Because now, some of them are mates too and -- well, I think he's a bit confused. But of course centuries-old kitsune can't be confused because they already know everything, so don't tell him I said that," he added with a little, awkward smile.

Sakura shuddered. "You can count on that."

Sasuke moved, stretching his legs in front of him casually. "Stop stalling, Sakura. There's something else you want to ask."

She jumped, startled, and gave him a hurt look. "I'm not stalling! This is important!"

The black-haired teenager snorted. "We can ask him why he destroyed Konoha later. It's not going to change anything to our current situation. Naruto... Can the Kyuubi slip free and possess Sakura's child?"

Sakura cringed and bit her lip, hard enough that Naruto worried that she would start to bleed. He wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he doubted she would accept his touch right now.

"No... No way in hell," he replied wearily. "I don't know what those shitheads of the Council told you, Sakura-chan, but it shows that they never got to look at my seal up close. It's just not possible."

"Why?" she replied in a whisper, hope and fear in her eyes. "What makes it impossible?"

"Well... 'cause basically, he's living on my lifeforce. We're sharing the same chakra pathways. He doesn't have a body of his own, so the seal anchored him into mine. The old pervert-sennin babbled at me about that once, and I guess you'd have to ask him for the arcane details, 'cause I didn't get any of it. But when he dumbed it down, he explained it like that: a soul has these kinda hooks on it, that permits it to connect to a body. And the seal made it so his hooks became my hooks and so he's only connected through me. Meaning even if he manages to get past the seal that keeps him caged and unable to do anything, and rips himself out of me, he leaves his hooks behind and he can't get into anything else. And he dies. For good, this time."

He neglected to add that the loss of the Kyuubi would most likely, if not kill him too, then at least turn him into a drooling vegetable. He didn't want to taint the pure relief in her green eyes.

"So he... He can't leave you."

"Nope," he replied in a cheerful, carefree tone.

"He'll die with you, then?" Sasuke asked.

Naruto blinked; he'd almost forgotten that the other guy was there. "... Yeah. He'll die with me."

"Bet he doesn't like that," Sasuke said noncommittally. Naruto believed that tone from him about as well as he believed Kakashi-sensei's daily excuses.

Naruto shrugged. "Makes it easier to force chakra out of him when I'm in deep shit."

Sakura wasn't listening to them. She was rubbing her stomach slowly, eyes lost staring at nothing.

"So he can't possess my -- the baby," she whispered. She looked slightly relieved, but not as much as Naruto would have wished.

"No, he can't," he repeated slowly, patiently.

"So what else is wrong?" Sasuke sniped, frowning. Naruto scowled at him; what had crawled up his butt and -- ACK bad comparison -- what made him so cranky? He could be nicer, he wasn't the pregnant one...

God, Sakura was pregnant. Because of him.

"Naruto was a normal human before the Kyuubi was shoved inside him, and now -- he has claws and fangs sometimes, and his chakra... Is the baby going to be -- normal?"

She had whispered the last word, knowing that it would hurt, but Naruto barely flinched. He knew he was abnormal, had known for a while.

"What if the effect is even worse on it? What if --"

_/She looks like she thinks she'll give birth to a fox cub/_ Kyuubi mused. Naruto blinked.

_'Already back?' _He thought he'd pushed the fox deeper than that. _'Well, she's not going to, right?' _He asked his tenant, vaguely unsure.

A disdainful snort._ /It's your body she slept with./ _There were flashes of memory with the retort, but he forced himself to ignore them.

"Nah, won't be. My body's human, so the baby should be human too. Though, the chakra... well, maybe that will get passed down, but I don't know. I don't think so... We'll have to ask old hag Tsunade what she thinks."

"But it can have _claws_ and _fangs_..."

"Sakura."

They both blinked at Sasuke's weary and annoyed tone, and turned to look at him.

"Inuzuka Kiba has claws and fangs. Is he human?"

The kunoichi sighed. "... Ah -- yes... Okay, I see your point."

"So the baby won't be weirder than an Inuzuka at the most. At least it's not going to be an Aburame."

Sakura looked guilty for laughing at that, but Sasuke's dry comment had managed to lift the tense atmosphere. Naruto chuckled, as much from the quip as from sheer relief.

The baby. Sakura's baby.

He wondered what it would look like, if it would be a boy or a girl -- if he or she would have Sakura's eyes and his hair... He thought of a little boy with pink hair and swallowed a giddy chuckle. Man, he hoped not, poor kid.

"Yeah. So... uhm. 'Course I don't mean we've got to live together, but I'll help you raise him --her? -- and everything else... You can have half of my mission pays, it's not as if I need it..."

Suddenly it was cold in their cozy corner of the woods, and it had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with the frozen expression on Sakura's face. She jumped up and started to pace on the branch, and the two boys couldn't help but stare. She looked ready to cry once again, her hands gripping big handfuls of her hair in despair.

"I don't even know if I'm going to keep it!"

All of Naruto's half-formed dreams of family shattered in hundreds of shards. Inside him, Kyuubi was too quiet.

"I'm barely seventeen, I'm too young to be a mother! And we -- don't take me wrong, Naruto, I love you, but -- but you're the Kyuubi's vessel! Even if the council lets me keep it, which they might not, the villagers are going to give me hell about that, and my child will be treated like shit, just like -- just like _you_ were, and I don't want that for a child of mine, I can't stand the thought. And what if that makes the child a target too? What if Akatsuki, or some group like that --"

She seemed to know how cruel it was to him, but she kept pacing, her voice bordering on hysteria.

"I was supposed to go on missions and train and finally become strong enough so that you two wouldn't leave me behind all the time! I didn't want to be a mother yet -- when am I going to train? Who will go on missions with you two when I'm fat like a whale? Who will plan for you two and prevent you from being stupid and bandage you up and -- we're not even chuunin yet. We were supposed to wait until the Council stopped giving Sasuke hell and then we'd go take the exam together, all three of us, and _you're my boys_ and I refuse to see you two team up with someone else while I stay behind to play housewife!"

Naruto bit down on the howl of denial trying to rise from his throat. He would hate it if something came out of the blue and wrecked his dreams, and it was unfair to expect Sakura to put her life on hold for an accident.

"... Your boys?" Sasuke whispered.

Even hurting over the possibility that there would be no baby, Naruto couldn't miss the bewilderment in his voice.

She bit her lip and her fists fell back at her sides. "That's-- how I think of you two. Even before... last night. Since... Well, for a while. It's not romantically or anything," she added, giving Sasuke a beaten puppy look. "It's just... Well, you know I've wanted to date you for ages, but it doesn't matter. You're both my boys, even if -- you both find someone else. You know... Teammates and best friends and all that."

She seemed to realize she'd only been staring at Sasuke and gave Naruto a glance. He tried to smother the quick burst of jealousy. He knew that Sakura had a crush on Sasuke. It didn't matter, because the way he felt for Sasuke and for Sakura had nothing in common either, and yet in the end they were both his anyway. He was in love with Sakura, he knew that, complete with butterflies in his stomach when she smiled at him; with Sasuke... It was nothing like it, nothing so bubbly and soft and nice; he just knew there was no way in hell he'd ever let go.

Sasuke still looked just as cold and distant as always, but he nodded, slowly. "Right. Sakura, it's your decision. We'll back you."

/_Don't you talk for us, you arrogant ice-brat/_ Kyuubi suddenly snarled, making Naruto flinch.

He scowled, shoving the fox back._ 'But I agree with him. If I were a girl, I'd keep it, but Sakura-chan isn't me. What can I do, carry it for her? She needs help, not... I agree with Sasuke.'_

_/No. You don't./_

_'I do.'_

_/Do not even try to lie to me, brat. I'm inside you. You would kill to have this cub./_

And, understood Naruto, so would he.

Naruto couldn't help but be vaguely shocked at the vehemence with which the monster living inside him protested. Kyuubi no Youko cared only for himself, for his own life. Everyone else could die, for all that mattered, especially if he got to kill them himself. _'I don't understand. Why...?'_

For a second, he was suspicious -- maybe Kyuubi _could_ leave his body for that of his child-- but when he pressed down on the fox's mind, he couldn't feel the desperate hope such a possibility would have created. Just rage and disdain and a few disturbing images of Sakura chained down in a hidden cave as her belly grew rounder. He pulled back with disgust -- especially because, for a second, he had considered pressuring her to keep the child.

_/Stop being so squeamish./_

_'I would never do that to Sakura-chan. I'd rather die than treat her like a breeding bitch. So you can cross that little fantasy out, okay?'_

The fox laughed, a dark, ugly roar of a laugh._ /You would have her around every time you want to fuck. And when she nags too much you could just leave. It would be perfect./_

Naruto clenched his teeth, feeling his growing fangs cut into his gums.

_'No.'_

_/Hoping she'll let you keep on mounting her anyway? If you think it will be fun to __**talk**__ her into it.../ _the fox drawled, sounding unconvinced but amused anyway.

"Shut up," he whispered, shaking his head. He couldn't tear his eyes away from Sakura's belly. She was wearing his sweater -- surrounded in his scent, marked as being under his protection, his mate, and inside her was growing his -- no. She was not his to knock up at will. She was Sakura-chan, one of his most loved people, and he would rather never have a family of his own than have it like that, through guilt and emotional blackmail and force.

_/It's your problem to convince her to have more sex. There's always the heat if the prissy slut turns too-good-for-you once again./_

The blond boy hissed, baring his fangs. If he wasn't so angry and desperate, it would be an easy matter to drop into a light meditation and refuse access to the Kyuubi once more, but right now he was in too much of an emotional turmoil to even try. And the stupid fox didn't make it better by letting their feelings mirror and echo off each other.

... Wait-- Kyuubi wasn't feeling angry anymore. Or he was, but only a normal level of angry, mixed with some satisfaction and a touch of dark amusement.

_'What the hell...'_

He caught a flash of images, a full moon in the night sky, and chakra lines in Sakura's belly that glowed; it looked just like he had always imagined a Hyuuga must see.

_'Explain that,'_ he growled, sending back threats of months in the dark, inside a cage whose bars seared the mind and the memory of a body. Kyuubi growled, but eventually he deigned to explain.

_/Just let her stall until the full moon and the point will be moot./_

_'What about the full moon?' _It would start in three days, he knew that, but-- what the hell did he mean?

Under his mind's eye, the chakra lines running in a spiral from Sakura's bellybutton were bleeding into another, subdued glow -- and then as it grew clearer with the light of the moon, he understood what it was. It was the start of the baby's chakra pathways, feeding off its mother's.

They had learned at school that it was normal, that it didn't hurt the mother, only depleted her chakra reserves for a few months before her body got used to the imbalance, but Naruto strongly doubted that it started this early, or this powerfully. Sakura would be very sick during that pregnancy.

_/It will be a lot worse if there's no pregnancy/_ Kyuubi commented with a disdainful snort.

Suddenly, in the image, there was no softly glowing baby-chakra anymore, and Sakura's pathways went haywire, trying to compensate for the sudden loss -- and her lifeforce started seeping out from the gaping holes left by the fetus' disappearance. Horrified, he saw the delicate web of her vital energy tear one link after another and then go out, snuffed like a candle.

"No way in hell," he snarled softly, looking up at his teammates. They were staring at him, wary, ready to bolt, and he realized that he must have looked about to snap. He was still seeing things with that weird intensity, catching every tiny movement, which meant that his pupils had elongated into two ovals and his irises were red as blood.

He made himself take a deep breath, then another, and yet another, until his claws had retracted and his teeth felt normal once again. "You're thinking about aborting, right?"

She flinched, but nodded, slowly looking up to meet his eyes.

"Then I -- I gotta tell you that..._ SHUT UP!_" he snarled at his tenant, blinking back the itchy feeling under his eyelids. "That in about three days-- Kyuubi just told me-- in three days, full moon and all -- it'll be hooked to your chakra and you won't be able to pull it out without damage and _will you stop howling, you bloody sack of fur?!_"

He knew that his eyes had gone red once again and he had to fight to keep the chakra from leaking out, claws piercing his palms as he clenched his fists. He forced himself to get on his feet slowly, carefully controlling his every movement. Kyuubi was still raging against the seal and throwing insults at Sakura. Naruto could only catch a few words here and there -- not that he was trying to listen, but the yowling was so loud it even drowned the beat of his blood in his ears. _/how dare she -- should be honored -- my cub, MINE--/_

_'No,' _he thought, fighting back tears._ 'Not yours. Not mine. Just Sakura's. Her choice.'_

"So here it is. You have three days. If I were you I wouldn't cut it too close, you never know. If you want to keep the baby, I'll be there. ...Even if you don't. 'Kay? Teammate forever, you know. So... I'm gonna... Take a walk. So you can think."

_'And so I can murder a helpless animal or two,'_ he added to himself, before turning around and letting himself drop from the tree.


	5. Sasuke : Revelations

Beta: the amazing, kind, talented JoIsBishMyoga. ::licks::

U.U Okay, I didn't intend to indicate any sort of personal pro-life/pro-choice stance. But I rather think that regardless of your general opinion, getting pregnant in what equals to a drugged state and bearing a baby that could claw its way out of you and then proceed to destroy your village is a good reason to consider abortion. No, seriously, would you tell Sigourney Weaver that she'd got to carry her little alien to term because every life is sacred :p

* * *

**Chapter 5 : Revelations  
**(Sasuke) 

Sakura was crying. Sasuke vowed to sort the matter out by himself if he had to, if only so that next time they had a crisis, she could go cry on Naruto. Give him an enemy to get rid of for her, and he would get rid of it, no questions asked. Give him officials to convince, pressure, blackmail -- he would do that, too. But comforting had never been his forte.

He couldn't think of anything to say, so he listened and patted her back gently, and even --surprising himself-- rocked her a little, stiffly, all the while trying not to think. He didn't want to imagine what would be worse, that she would have that baby or that she wouldn't. If she decided not to, it would hurt her and Naruto both; but if she decided to -- there was the villagers' reaction to consider, and the Council, and maybe Naruto and Sakura would have to move in together. And raise the child together.

And he would be an outsider again -- no. Don't think.

"Can I do anything?" he asked when the quiet sobs started coming more slowly.

"Can you bring my mother here?" she asked. She sounded so weary now.

He didn't answer.

"Then no, there's nothing you can do right now. Thanks for asking, though," she added, giving him a weak smile. "I just need to think. Or not think-- maybe that would be best. Maybe I should... nap. Or something. Everything will look better once I'm not so stressed and tired. Right?"

She was doing a fine job of convincing herself, so he just nodded in the blanks.

"Sakura..."

"I'll be fine. It's just-- kind of stressful, you know?"

Sasuke nodded, acutely aware of his arm around her shoulders, her weight against his side, the damp patch on his shirt. Sakura rubbed a hand against her eyes, and tried on a smile.

"You should find Naruto. Make sure he's not doing anything stupid. And... well, we have pretty good proof that it's true; the K-kyuubi can't control him. So... I trust him, okay? I still-- he's still my boy. That won't change. Can you tell him that?"

That seemed like a pretty good plan. She would be safe here; there were traps all around the place and the biggest animals wouldn't be able to climb that high up the slippery bark. And he didn't like the torn, enraged, hurt expression on the idiot's face when he stormed off.

"I will." He loosened his hold, letting her sit up on her own. "You... Things always look better in the morning," he felt compelled to add, feeling a bit silly; she'd just said something like that not a minute ago.

She chuckled in a strange watery way that didn't convince him. Sasuke wondered what Naruto would do... He had an idea, but then Naruto tended to suffer from the "when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts looking like a nail" mentality. Except, in battle, Naruto had two tools, Kage Bunshin and Rasengan. In interpersonal relationships...

Oh, damn it, it wouldn't kill him. Sasuke brushed a quick kiss against her cheek. When she blushed and then smiled at him, in a more sincere way, he decided that it hadn't been all bad an idea... Even though now her eyes showed a little hint of that faraway, dreamy look girls got around him that usually made him feel so uneasy and annoyed. She wasn't trying to latch onto him, though; that made it tolerable.

"You should go now," she told him with a regretful sigh.

He nodded, then got up and jumped off the tree.

There was a red, piercing pain in his chest, and he wondered for a second if his cracked ribs had broken all the way. But he didn't feel them move under his skin, so he kept going, ignoring it. If it wasn't worsening, he was just going to deal with it.

Finding Naruto's tracks wasn't difficult in the least. The forest was littered with broken branches and uprooted grass, the trees were gouged, claw marks all over the bark, and a few times Sasuke even walked past dead animals.

Finally he felt Naruto's chakra, and heard the sound of fists against flesh and bushes crushed as a body landed heavily on them. Naruto was facing a tiger the size of two horses; another one lay in a mangled mass of fur and flesh a few feet away.

Sasuke didn't say anything, just watched as his teammate dispatched the monster easily.

Naruto stood, head bowed, arms gloved in wet red up to his elbows, his breath so harsh it sounded like a growl. Sasuke didn't say anything yet; the blond would acknowledge him in his own time.

When he turned, just a little, to glance at him from beneath his messy bangs, Sasuke wasn't surprised in the least by the red eyes. He arched an eyebrow at the spreading whisker marks, though. He'd always assumed they were scars.

"What do you want, Sasuke?" the blond growled, not bothering to turn toward him all the way.

"I want to talk to the Kyuubi."

The whole forest seemed to freeze.

"You... what?" Naruto asked, finally facing him.

"You heard," he snapped back, the pain in his chest making him impatient. "I want to know why he wants that child so much, if it's not to possess it."

Naruto's mouth opened and closed a few times, and then he bit his lip and looked away.

"Sasuke... He's not... Not nice..."

"And I am?" Sasuke asked dryly, arching an eyebrow.

Naruto laughed nervously. "No, you're the biggest asshole in the history of Konoha."

"So let me talk to him. You can stop him, right?"

"Well, yeah, but... You mean letting him take control? I've never really done that before, I have no idea how..."

Like Sasuke would know. He'd listened to Naruto, but concretely speaking, he didn't have any idea either. "You said sometimes he was... _there_? Just let him come up and don't do anything."

He'd said it at random, but from the face he was making, Naruto seemed to think it might work. "Sure you don't want me to ask for you?"

Sasuke growled, impatient. "No." A middleman would only muddle things.

He waited as Naruto closed his eyes and his features relaxed slowly, losing their tension and residual anger. For the longest time, though, it just looked as if he'd fallen asleep on the spot.

And then there was a _shift_. Sasuke couldn't have explained what had changed, but something had.

When the blond opened his eyes, he wasn't quite Naruto any longer.

Sasuke watched him warily, but curiously too. Face to face with what had been one of the biggest enemies of Konoha -- worse even than Orochimaru in terms of sheer damage and body count -- he didn't feel any need to even check he had weapons or drop in a defensive crouch. He felt... well, safe might not be the best word; the Kyuubi was dangerous even to him, but... As safe as one could possibly be around such an unpredictable creature.

Fascinated too. But that was expected. High chakra levels always gave him something of a figurative hard-on.

The creature ignored him. It -- he? -- had dropped into a low, animalistic crouch, leaning some of his weight on his hands, and was taking in big lungfuls of the forest's scents, blood-red eyes taking in every little detail with a raw hunger that made Sasuke grow tense.

Naruto wasn't an undersized twerp anymore; hell, he was almost as tall as Sasuke, and maybe ten pounds heavier, all muscle. But somehow when it was the Kyuubi in control, it felt like he took up three times the space he usually did.

"What did you want, brat?"

Kyuubi was stretching, like a cat, eyes half-closed in sheer hedonistic pleasure. He didn't seem to even be looking at Sasuke. Even knowing that the demon-fox was probably very aware of his stance and position, it was still mildly annoying; Sasuke disliked nothing more than being considered too negligible a threat to be taken into account.

"I want to know why you want that child."

"What is it to you?" the fox snorted, and rolled in the grass casually, eyes narrowed into slits.

"Sakura and Naruto are my teammates. If it's going to come back and bite them in the ass, I'd rather she abort the brat now."

Kyuubi lifted his head and gave him a burning glare.

"Who says you have a say?"

Sasuke snorted. "Sakura is in love with me. You know I can convince her if I decide to do so. Wouldn't take much."

For a fleeting second, he could see Naruto's hurt, anguished expression on the blond's face as the eyes flitted to blue and back to red, but he forced himself to ignore it. It was for the idiot's own good that he was saying that.

Kyuubi gave him a long, considering look, and then smirked, displaying more fangs than a human mouth ought to possess.

"Who says it's not yours?"

Sasuke stopped moving so utterly that the loud beat filling his ears seemed incongruous. "_What_?" he whispered; the world was spinning.

Kyuubi snorted, baring his fangs.

"You were there too. We mounted you as you mounted her," he added, illustrating his subject with crude hand gestures. "Then we watched as you mounted her again. Who says the kit's not yours?"

Sasuke spluttered, not even thinking far enough to blush. The--but-- what...?

With a disgusted snort, the fox-demon rolled on all fours and turned away. Sasuke watched him blankly, his brain sluggishly moving through these new revelations.

"But-- it can't be..."

And why not? It was possible. He should have thought of that before! Hell, they should all have thought of that before! He had just assumed-- well, he didn't know what he had assumed. That it was Naruto's ... weird heat-thing, not his own, and he was only an accessory, maybe? That demon-bearers had superpowered semen, or something? That Naruto had nailed Sakura first, so anything happening after that was coincidental? But it wasn't always the case, was it. It wasn't "first come, first served" with reproduction, he did know that much.

There was a chance the baby was his.

There was a chance he wasn't the last Uchiha anymore.

"Still set on convincing her to get rid of it?"

You don't need to sound so fucking smug, Sasuke thought, but he didn't say anything.

The demon in a boy's body laughed, a low, purring, utterly _amused_ sound that made Sasuke want to bury a few kunai in his throat, but the knowledge that it was still Naruto's body as well as the certainty that he'd be dead before finishing his throw stilled his hand.

"You really think it might be mine? Or are you just saying that to fuck with me?"

The fox burst out laughing a second time. It sounded a bit deranged, and way too cruel to be coming from Naruto's throat.

"When I want to fuck with you, you will know it, ice-bitch. I doubt you get on your knees so often that you can mistake the position for anything else."

Against his best efforts, Sasuke's cheeks reddened, but he couldn't say if it was anger or acute embarrassment.

"You know that's not what I mean," he snarled, aggravated.

"How should I? I'm not in your head. Though if you want me in you, there are better parts to use."

"Can't you stop being a pervert for two seconds?!"

Gah! He couldn't believe the damn fox had made him lose his cool. He was usually immune to that sort of jibe, but then he rarely heard them from a male who actually had the power to get away with acting on them.

"I'm kitsune. We like to fuck. Get used to it."

"Stop trying to sidetrack me. Why do you want that child so badly?" 'Even though it might be mine?' he thought, but didn't add. He didn't want the fox to bury him under irrelevant details.

It was unnerving how well Naruto's usually cheerful face could convey a cold threat. Sasuke didn't flinch, though. His brother's eyes were just as red, and they were a lot scarier. Mostly because they promised pain, yet didn't seem to care one way or another for the person they were promising horrible suffering and a messy death to. The Kyuubi's eyes were full of barely contained rage and offense. As long as there was feeling in someone, it was possible to manipulate them into not attacking, or attacking sloppily -- but when they went emotionless...

"Tell me why, and I might believe you and help. But even if it's mine-- if you give no reason, I'll assume it's for something bad." And then I'll get Sakura to abort it, he wanted to add, but he didn't, because he wasn't sure he would be able to use his influence on her that way. He hadn't been sure he could when he had still believed he had no part in the tiny life taking root inside her; and now ...

Kyuubi spat on the grass, hissing in anger, and bared his fangs at him.

"Depends who you ask," he replied snidely. "Your village will find it awful, no doubt about it."

Sasuke didn't say anything, just waited. But that didn't work; the fox just pretended to watch a bird flying through the branches, ignoring him.

"... Can Naruto tell me?"

The fox sent him a quick glare. "No."

"Because he doesn't know?"

"Because he's too stupid to see we have the same fucking reason! Mine just isn't cushioned by layers upon layers of pathetic sentimentalism."

Sasuke just waited patiently, a little while longer. He didn't like being patient, but he had always been better at it than Naruto. He hoped it would be the same with Kyuubi.

"...I want to breed. Is that so difficult to believe? I can't die without leaving something behind."

Sasuke stared at him. The fox wanted a legacy? An heir? "... I see," he whispered finally.

He was just the same about his clan. The need to rebuild it, for the village, for his dead parents, was overwhelming at times; he had just always made himself wait until later, when his brother would be dead and his new clan would be safe, when he would be strong and old and wise enough to really deserve the title and place of patriarch. Right now, he was still a child, still not good enough.

The fox snorted and did another of his catlike full-body stretches. He still looked angry, resentful. Sasuke didn't feel like making an enemy out of him.

"Okay, that's a good reason," he admitted. The fox would die with Naruto. Normally nine-tailed kitsune had centuries of life to look forward to; he wondered how old this one was, how many years he'd lost when the Fourth Hokage locked him inside a human baby. If he was to die before his time, the urge to leave something behind must be even more pressing.

"So why Sakura, then?" She was a pretty, healthy girl, but as far as power went... Well, she was only a second-generation ninja on her father's side, her mother had never held a kunai in her life, and she wasn't that powerful. He wondered what the fox considered worthy of bearing his offspring.

"The boy wants her."

"And you?" Sasuke asked, frowning faintly as he tried to understand how the demon's mind worked.

Kyuubi started making his way in his direction, and Sasuke watched him warily, tensing a little, pushing back the pain in his chest as he went a little more on alert than he'd been.

"A human bitch is a human bitch, pink fur or not. Her or the white-eyed bitch, it was the same to me, but the boy refused the other one. Just as well; she was covered in that mangy dog-boy's scent," he added with a grimace of disdain.

Somehow, Sasuke didn't like the idea that it could have been Hinata instead. Not that he disliked Hinata, but... He didn't particularly like her either. She just didn't register on his radar. She was too weak, too nice, not interesting... And she wasn't part of Team Seven. It was weird that he wasn't all that jealous of Sakura, but would have been jealous of Hinata, or any other girl for that matter. Later, maybe, he would dwell on it, but for now the demon-fox was still approaching, slowly, deliberately, and for a second Sasuke felt like he was being hunted.

"So if you want a child so much," the black-haired boy asked casually as he stepped back out of range, "it doesn't bother you that I may have ..." Shit, there was the tree at his back. "...impregnated someone you chose to bear your kits?" Trapped. And the fox was still closing in slowly, straightening up to walk the last steps on his legs only.

"No." Kyuubi threw him a lazy smirk and then was in his face, without warning. "Because you're mine too. And your cubs will be my cubs."

Sasuke tensed; he didn't fight. It would be useless. Kyuubi couldn't do anything that Naruto would never, ever do -- he trusted the blond to pull out of it if it went too far, to take control again.

If Kyuubi thought for one second that he could keep control indefinitely, he wouldn't be there any longer, he would have gotten back to Sakura-chan, made sure she would stay pregnant maybe, and then gone back to Konoha to finish the job. But the second he threatened anyone seriously, he would be back inside Naruto's mind; that was why he was staying calm and toying with Sasuke's nerves instead of doing anything worthwhile.

Well, that was what the boy had deduced from his attitude and the discussion they'd just had with Naruto and Sakura. He just hoped he was right.

And as a hot breath caressed his neck and sharp canines brushed against his skin, he surprised himself hoping very strongly indeed.

"Stop," he grunted, hands on Kyuubi's shoulders to hold him at bay. The effort made him wince as it pulled on his abdominal muscles, and the demon fox frowned and actually leaned back a little, giving him some space to breathe.

"What do you mean, my cubs will be your cubs?" Sasuke scowled. "If they're mine, then they won't take after Naruto at all. I don't see how that will do anything for you."

The fox smirked at him, leaned forward, resting his forehead against Sasuke's forehead in a gesture that should have been casually affectionate. It was kind of nerve-wracking instead. It was the teeth. They were too white and too sharp.

"Maybe the blood in their veins won't be mine, but the chakra-- ahh, that will be a different matter indeed."

"What the hell does that mean?" the black-haired boy demanded, hands still planted on Kyuubi's shoulders to keep him from pressing against Sasuke's body. "I don't get it. If they're my children, they can't be yours..."

The fox scoffed. "It doesn't matter whose body fathers them."

"But--"

He would have asked more details, but it was hard to speak with a hand down his pants and teeth biting his ear.

Despite the aggressiveness, maybe even because of it, it would have felt good -- perhaps even good enough to let the damn fox get away with it -- if he hadn't pushed his chest against Sasuke's to back him up against the tree. And then suddenly the black-haired boy couldn't breathe, and it wasn't in the flattering way.

"Stop," he hissed, biting his lip to fight the haze of pain invading him.

Kyuubi snorted and kept going, mouthing the curse seal on his neck hungrily.

"... stop... hurts..."

He couldn't control his legs anymore-- they folded under him as if his muscles had transformed into water. Only the fact that he was pinned to the tree by the demon's weight kept him upright; he dragged in a deep shuddering breath, refusing to let himself utter even one little gasp of pain.

The face in front of him frowned, the expression shifting, and for a few seconds he couldn't say who was looking at him. Then the blond helped him to sit down on the grass, and when he looked up it was into blue eyes, with just a hint of purple strands mixed in.

"Oh hell, Sasuke, I'm sorry! I didn't -- how'd he hurt you?"

Sasuke shook his head. "No... He just -- leaned on my chest. Think I have cracked ribs," he added as he gasped for breath.

Naruto relaxed slowly, apparently relieved that he hadn't lost control as badly as he'd thought, and then scowled at Sasuke. "You idiot! Why are you moving around in that case?"

"It's nothing," Sasuke snapped back. "I can deal with that; we have better things to do than playing nurse right now."

"Like what?"

"Like figuring out what we're going to do, moron," he hissed, and then made himself calm down. It wasn't worth it.

Naruto sighed and sat in the grass, facing him. "We can't do anything so long as Sakura-chan hasn't made her decision."

The blond seemed embarrassed, and he was going out of his way to look anywhere but at Sasuke. Sasuke frowned, leaning back against the tree carefully as he thought.

"Hey, idiot..."

As he had hoped, the casual insult provoked Naruto into glaring at him.

"Do you remember what just happened?" Sasuke asked, staring deep into his eyes.

He saw a flicker of some dark, unhappy emotion -- fear? Regret? Guilt?

"... Yeah. I remember. Wasn't that far down."

Naruto didn't look away, didn't look down. Guilt indeed; and apology too, in the way the blond let Sasuke stare into his eyes so frankly.

"So you heard what he said about the child possibly being mine."

Naruto nodded, eyes flickering down before he made himself meet Sasuke's again, a painfully wide grin on his lips. "It's cool with me. So long as I get to be the godfather."

It was so false that it made Sasuke cringe inwardly, but Naruto so visibly wanted it to be true that he didn't feel like calling him on it.

"Do you know what he meant when he said that the child would be his, even if I was the one who fathered it?"

"Not a clue," answered the blond as he scratched his head quizzically. "But he felt pretty sure of it when he said it."

"He really, honestly believes that the child will be his regardless?"

"Uh huh."

"But in what sense? Biologically? Or just in spirit? How the hell could it inherit his chakra? That's like inheriting a transplant."

Naruto blinked and scratched his head again. "He didn't say."

The black-haired teen scowled. That wasn't very helpful.

"Can you ask?"

"Uh... he's kind of sulking."

"Sulking?" Sasuke repeated, incredulous.

"Yeah, uh, causehedidn'tgettonailyou."

They looked away at the same time, both pretending that neither was blushing.

"I'm sorry," Naruto finally mumbled, his hands uprooting handfuls of grass nervously.

"What for?"

"I didn't stop him sooner. I'm sorry. I mean-- some of the stuff he said! He really was a jerk. And then he tried to... to..."

Sasuke shrugged. "I can take whatever he says. It's just words."

Naruto looked utterly miserable.

"Idiot. You didn't let him hurt me."

"...Shoulda stopped him sooner..."

Okay, he was firmly decided to wallow in misery. Time to take another route. "Why didn't you?" Sasuke asked neutrally.

The blond ninja's cheeks turned tomato-red in under two seconds.

"I -- uhh-- that is-- I wasn't really myself-- well, I was, but-- it felt like a dream, sorta, where you can do anything and it doesn't matter so long as--as-- as you feel like doing it," he added in a whisper.

"And you felt like jumping me."

It was interesting how may shades of red Naruto's cheeks could come up with.

"Uh. I'm really sorry -- you probably won't trust me to control him anymore, now," Naruto added dejectedly.

Sasuke sighed wearily and took a deep breath. "Naruto... you idiotic, moronic dead-last. When Kyuubi is in control, you shed your inhibitions, but that doesn't make your sense of right and wrong disappear. You stopped, right? That's why," he spat, annoyed, "I'm not going to be scared of your stupid, idiotic, moronic dead-last ass. And if you make me say it again, I swear they'll never find your body."

The smile on Naruto's face was a lot more sincere now.

"Right. So..."

They fell silent, once again finding nothing to say. This time, though, they kept looking at each other.

"So. D'you still wanna shag?"

Sasuke blinked.

"I mean, not now-now, but later. Eventually. If we get a chance. I mean, would you rather it was a one-time thing, or -- err."

Sasuke blinked again.

"...I just wanna know. No pressure."

Sasuke managed to find his composure again. "... Why not. Unless Sakura has a problem with it," he added as an afterthought. They still didn't know how it would all end after all-- maybe she didn't want to be a single mother, would want to get together with one of them. He had a feeling she could be convinced to share if they presented it right, but that would be a delicate matter. Their relationship, the tangle of feelings they had for each other was so complicated. He appreciated her, wanted to keep her safe, hated to see her hurt, but he wanted Naruto -- wanted his power and his passion -- more. She liked Naruto, but Sasuke had a feeling she had never thought of the blond as boyfriend material before. As for Naruto...

... Well, Naruto was an equal opportunity pervert, it seemed.

"Well, of course," Naruto replied, scratching his hair. "But I don't see why she would. I mean, you're Sasuke. It's not like you're Kiba or Chouji," he added with a grimace.

The black-haired boy shrugged. "She's a girl. They're weird about that sometimes."

"Yeah, you'd think they never have urges," the blond grumbled. "Sometimes I think it would be easier to just go with boys -- I mean, they don't get all 'It's undying love or nothing!' -- but well, I'd miss breasts," he added with a chuckle.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto gave him a long, considering look.

"Say, Sasuke... You wanna learn the Sexy no jutsu?"

"Fuck off and die," he shot back with a nasty glare. It only made Naruto grin wider.

"Bet you'd make a sexy girl. You wouldn't need to change much, the doll face's already-- HA! Missed!"

Sasuke's kunai disappeared in the grass on the other side of the clearing. "Go fetch it," he growled, giving the laughing blond a stern look.

"Oi, I'm not your dog," Naruto protested, but he went anyway.

Sasuke watched him, rubbing his chest distractedly. Throwing that had hurt more than it should have. He had to be careful, but he kept forgetting.

"Who else would you do, if you could?" he asked casually, trying to pretend that he wasn't morbidly curious. "I mean guys."

Naruto gave him back the kunai and sat cross-legged at his side, his face a picture of puzzled concentration.

"Hmm. I dunno. There's not a lot of boys our age, and I'm so not gonna ogle the teachers. And there's not a lot of boys pretty enough for me."

Sasuke elbowed Naruto for calling him pretty. "Huh. You're more difficult with the guys than with the girls."

"Yeah. Dunno why. So long as a girl is cute, I'll ogle, but most boys, I just don't think of it. Guess overall I'm more straight than not."

Huh. Sasuke didn't think much about who was cute or not either, but that was more a matter of concentrating on other things, like getting stronger. So, who could be considered cute amongst the guys his age... "... Neji?"

"What? No," Naruto replied with a laugh. "Sure, okay, he's pretty to look at, and I like him and all, but my dick would freeze and fall off if it went within a meter of his ass. He's even more of an icy bitch than you are."

"Kiba?"

"Ack! He's my friend! I'm so not thinking about him like that. He's too... too... And he's straight! And Shika's the same! I'm not thinking about them that way."

"And I'm not your friend?" he shot back, stung.

Naruto blinked at him as if it was obvious. "It's different. You're Sasuke."

It really shouldn't have made sense enough to please him, but it did. "Enough babble," he decided, unwilling to keep questioning Naruto; it made him feel like a schoolgirl playing truth or dare with her crush. "We're going back."

He refused Naruto's help, of course, and the blond pretended not to see him lean against the tree to get up. They made their way back to the big tree, a lot more slowly than they'd left. A few times they walked past scavengers hungrily devouring Naruto's victims, but nothing attacked them. That was a relief; he really didn't feel like fighting.

Climbing the tree, with its slippery bark, was a challenge. He pretended not to notice when Naruto started cutting up slashes in the wood, just deep enough for him to grab with his toes or his fingers, but he used them all the same.

Sakura was dozing off when they arrived. She was curled up against the trunk, knees against her chest, burrowed in Naruto's orange pullover, and he couldn't say if she was searching for warmth or for reassurance more. As he saw her, Sasuke remembered that he had forgotten to give her message to Naruto, and tapped his shoulder, leaning close to whisper in his ear.

"She wanted me to tell you that you're still her boy, regardless."

He watched as Naruto's expression softened and he knelt at her side, caressing her hair gently. "Oi, Sakura-chan," the blond whispered. "Are you cold?"

She blinked her eyes open and shivered, smothering a yawn. "Ah -- yes..."

Naruto bit his lip as he thought. "Sasuke, sit close to her, I'm gonna get more wood for the fire."

Sasuke just happened to be a bit cold as well, so he did. She gave him a shy glance and leaned against his shoulder, just barely. He rolled his eyes and slipped an arm around her to pull her close. He'd thought they were past all that flirtiness.

Blushing, Sakura cuddled up, and he hid a wince as her arm encircled his waist. Ah well, she wasn't moving around; he got used to the slight pressure easily enough. It was just a matter of concentration.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked quietly. When he turned toward her, his nose and lips ended up in her hair. She shivered. Sasuke thought it was a little unnerving to have such an effect on girls without even trying. He rubbed her back, to warm her as much as to warm himself.

"Yes... Thank you. Calmer at least."

"I talked to Kyuubi," he announced, wanting to inform her quickly so they could discuss of other things when Naruto came back. "He says he just wants the child for the sake of having one." He didn't add anything, letting her draw her own conclusions. She had a quick mind; he hoped she was calm enough not to let her fear slow it down again because he didn't feel like going into the details.

Sakura stiffened, pulling back slightly, and stared at him. "You talked to..."

"Naruto chose to let him. He didn't have a problem taking control again." Okay, that might not be entirely truthful, but strictly speaking it had been true-- when Naruto wanted to come back, he did. It was just that it had been hard making him want it. "_He_ says -- he says it might be mine."

Sakura's hand rose to her mouth.

"Oh."

He waited, impassible expression hiding his nervousness. It was still Sakura's choice, but it was a lot harder to keep on being the calm, impartial one when there was so much at stake. He hadn't realized before how detached from the whole problem he felt, how out of the loop. Even despite all his talk of team bonds, it had still been 'not his problem'.

Not anymore.

"You told her?" Naruto asked as he put an armful of dry wood down and added some into the fire. "So, what do we do now?"

"First, you get your ass here," Sasuke ordered, nodding at Sakura's other side. "Then we review our options."

Naruto gave Sakura a glance, unsure, but after a small hesitation, she nodded. He sat down against the tree, his arm resting around Sakura's shoulders and his hand brushing the back of Sasuke's neck.

"So, uhm. Options," the blond prompted as he tried to find a comfortable position.

Sakura took a deep breath.

"First, worst case scenario: Kyuubi can possess my -- the child, or it will be born a monster, or put my life in danger during the pregnancy."

Sasuke squeezed her waist gently, not knowing how to express his encouragements, then nudged Naruto's side with his fingers to get him to relax a little.

"If he can possess it, then I have to abort. It would put the whole village in danger. It's not a risk I want to take."

The boys nodded together, neither liking the solution but not having a better one to give. They didn't have the know-how to make sure Kyuubi no Youko stayed put.

"If the child is normal -- or normal enough-- then what?" Naruto asked softly.

"I don't know. There will be so many problems if I decide to keep it... The villagers, the Council... "

Sasuke frowned. She was veering toward self-pity again. He understood, but ...

"Sakura. We can find ways to make those problems _better_, but as better as we make them, they'll never be as good as what you dreamed your life would be. Unless you have an abortion."

Her face hidden by her hair, she sighed, and shrugged quietly. "If I abort, I'll spend my life devoured by guilt and what-ifs. If the child would be normal, then the disturbance it wreaks on my little life is not supposed to be reason enough."

"Supposed by who?" Naruto challenged. He had tensed up and was staring at her, his face a mix of hope and fear.

"... Everyone. If I were from a big town, it might be different-- but I'm from the Hidden Village of Konoha. Intellectually, I know that people only frown on abortion unless strictly necessary because of our high death rate, and it's even worse in the advanced bloodline clans. But in my guts-- well, it's the way I was raised," she admitted, softly. "I would tear myself up if I got rid of the child just because it was more convenient for me. I know it's stupid -- I mean, it's not even a fetus yet, just a little lump of cells, but three days is not enough to come to terms with the decision to never let it grow. And then when I'm older and have other children, I'll probably keep wondering... How much like them it would have been, how different, and why couldn't it live when its siblings did? It would just be unfair for the child to get rid of it," Sakura admitted even more softly.

Naruto nuzzled her hair gently, not saying anything.

"But -- what about what's fair to me?"

Sasuke decided not to reply that life wasn't fair. If Sakura thought she couldn't do it, then the child would be miserable, and all of them with it. And sometimes he thought it might be a mercy not to have to go through life unloved.

But Sakura had decided to keep it if she could, at least, and he had to admit he was relieved. Just like Naruto was. But then, they weren't the ones whose life would get the most fucked up over it.

Sasuke couldn't help with the moral dilemmas, but he knew how to be practical. "You said you wanted to be a chuunin before you became a mother... There's an exam in a couple of months. You won't start to show before the... fourth? Fifth month? We can pass the exam before it becomes a hindrance. Then, as chuunin, we get better pay and some choice in the missions we take. We could stay posted at Konoha as guards for a few years. Then we won't be different from all the ninja who keep working with a family."

Sakura sighed.

"That could work, but... I would feel guilty to leave it behind -- what if something happens to us?"

"All three of us at the same time?" Naruto snorted, as if he wanted to laugh.

"It's always possible, I guess," Sasuke admitted coolly, "but not that likely." It was hard not to scoff at the idea that anything short of Akatsuki or one of the two surviving Sannin could take on both he and Naruto and come out the winner. And he hated to admit it, but Akatsuki had seemed to lose interest in them these last years. The group almost seemed to have disappeared.

"Yes, but --"

"Old hag Tsunade would take care of the kid. And Iruka-sensei. And our friends -- Ino. She wouldn't leave a child of yours alone, right? Just like you wouldn't abandon one of hers."

Sakura relaxed enough to smile. "Right. Ino-pig wouldn't dare abandon my child. Ooh, I want to see her face when I tell her!"

"Tell her what?" Naruto blinked, puzzled.

"Ahh, nothing, girl stuff," Sakura replied, laughing.

Sasuke had a feeling it had something to do with him. Sure, Ino and Sakura had calmed down in the last years, but he still remembered their little wars to impress him and beat the hell out of each other. It wasn't the moment to have an argument with her because he didn't like being thought of as a trophy, though.

"Ah, but you only win points if you don't tell her I came with the package," Naruto replied with a chuckle.

Sakura blinked, for a second pausing in what Sasuke interpreted as wondering if she had or would hurt him, then smiled at the blond, teasing back gently. "That's only so long as she doesn't see you shirtless."

Sasuke snorted, but let them chuckle at each other for a few seconds. The situation caught up fast and they sobered up on their own.

"So... What other problems will we run across?"

"The Council," Sasuke replied.

"If Tsunade and Jiraiya say the kid's normal, the kid will be normal and they can shut the fuck up," Naruto growled, his nails leaving gouges in the bark.

Sakura shook her head. "I guess... if they can prove it, then the Council will have to leave us alone... But Naruto, they think your seal is failing and no one understands how it works, so we'll still be under suspicion. And they can try to..."

"Pressure you into aborting anyway?" Sasuke replied quietly.

"Yes..."

"Not if they think the child is an Uchiha."

Sakura and Naruto blinked at him.

"You know how enamored they all are with the idea of seeing my clan reborn," Sasuke commented coldly, burying his own burning desire to be once again surrounded with people of his blood. "And some of the heads of clans owed my father favors. They think I don't remember because I haven't called onto them yet. But it could help change the odds a little."

"You think it would really help?"

A vicious smirk blossomed on his lips as he thought of the political ramifications. "Hell yes it would. Especially since most of them are from the ancient noble clans like the Hyuuga or the Kagami, and happen to be cousins of the Uchiha to some degree; they see the Uchiha heir a lot more than they see the dubious allegiance from the whole Orochimaru debacle. And for those who are still wary of me because of that, I can argue that starting to rebuild my clan would tie me to Konoha more strongly than anything else ever would."

Naruto grimaced. "You take care of that side of things then. Should we swear that I didn't get to have sex with Sakura at all?"

"They would know we're lying," Sakura berated him. They had been taught at the Academy that many ninja learned to interpret the unconscious clues people gave when lying; it was useless to even try. "They have ways of knowing. But we can always present the truth in a favorable way."

"Wait, like... I had you first, but Sasuke did you five times and me only three?"

Sakura rapped her knuckles on Naruto's head sharply, blushing.

"Ow!"

"Then they would argue that demon seed is probably more potent and once would have been enough," Sasuke commented in a bored tone, trying not to smile at Naruto's childishly dismayed expression.

"Right. Fuckers. But they have no way of knowing before the kid's born, and I bet they wouldn't want to risk an Uchiha spawn unless they REALLY have to, so if old hag Tsunade says Kyuubi's not moving out anytime soon, they should back off. Any other problems?"

"The villagers..." Sakura sighed, tugging on a lock of her pink hair nervously and giving them guilty looks. "My reputation is probably already shot to hell -- they won't care if I get cleared, so long as they can gossip about how I jumped in bed with the Kyuubi's vessel and the traitor."

Naruto's eyes darkened with worry and he forced an insouciant smile on his face.

"But you could always say that it wasn't your fault, I jumped you--"

"I will _not _pretend that you raped me just to save my reputation!" Sakura snarled at him, green eyes burning with fury. She pulled free from their hold, turned so she was on her knees facing Naruto, fists clenched. "Maybe you started it, and maybe your freaky fox pheromones helped us to relax into it, but I _wanted_ to be there. I LOVED being there. I felt safe and sexy and loved and wanted, and I am not going to dirty that just because telling the truth might make some stupid old hags who haven't gotten any in forever titter about my sex life!"

Sasuke let himself smile. "That's the spirit."

She was deflating already, a frown on her face indicating that she was imagining all the whispers and shunning she would have to endure, but Sasuke touched her shoulder and she relaxed a little.

"Right. They don't matter," she repeated softly as she sat down again.

Sasuke felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Naruto's hand emerging from behind her back, pulling to hint that he should lean against Sakura more. So he did. On her other side Naruto was doing the same thing.

"Do you think it will help your reputation and the child's if you're married?" Sasuke asked idly.

Sakura froze.

"Are you asking me to marry you?"

He swallowed nervously, made sure that his unconcerned expression was still in place, and turned to look at her. A glance Naruto's way showed him nothing beyond surprise in his blue eyes.

"I guess I am."

She stared at him a little while longer, and then a bitter smile twisted her lips and she looked away.

"I used to dream of that, you know. 'Will you marry me, Sakura-chan?' And you would sweep me off my feet and do something outrageously romantic in that darkly handsome and mysterious way of yours."

Sasuke didn't say anything. Naruto was silent too, eyes lost staring at nothing.

Sakura sighed. "It won't help my reputation anyway. We would have to wait until after the birth to know which of you is the father. If the child is an Uchiha I don't intend to prevent you from claiming it, you know, married or not. I know it's important to you."

"It wouldn't be just for your reputation," he objected softly. "But -- if you want to marry the father, we will have to wait until afterwards."

Naruto shook his head and grinned in that way that made Sasuke want to hit him and stand in between him and whatever was making him hurt like that -- but Naruto didn't need comfort or protection. "Nah. I'm not the marriageable sort. You should marry Sasuke. After the exam maybe? That would be fun. I could be best man."

She gave him a wounded look; he wondered for who she was hurting. "Naruto--"

"Honestly? Sasuke is a rich noble with a serious reputation. I'm the troublemaker of the village, and demon-possessed at that. You want to keep your rep, you marry him."

"My reputation isn't that important to me!" she protested.

"It will be for the child. Believe me, he won't want the sort of grief you get from being an Uzumaki."

"And when the baby grows blond hair, I'll get a rep as a cuckolded husband and Sakura as an adulteress," Sasuke replied sarcastically.

"Maybe. But there's always the 'my grandmother had blond hair' excuse. Oh, hell, or we can henge him."

Sakura sighed. "We have a few months to figure that out," she replied, her tone indicating clearly that she was growing weary of the conversation.

Naruto leaned toward her and hugged her quickly. "Ah, it doesn't matter if the child is blond or not. He or she can even have black hair -- like I told Sasuke, I don't care so long as I get to be the godfather. I can, right, Sakura-chan?" he added, giving her the best puppy eyes Sasuke had ever seen him deliver.

"Ahh -- yes, of course," she assured him tiredly.

Naruto stayed curled up around her, both arms encircling her shoulders.

"He'll be beautiful. And we'll love him."

Sasuke was glad he wasn't one who talked a lot, because right now he couldn't have found the words to express what he was feeling if his life had depended on it.

We. Just one simple word, a little word, usually pretty much meaningless.

We.

"And -- you can ask for my help about anything you will need -- and I mean anything, Sakura-chan. I'll even learn to change diapers and get up to feed him during the nights and all..."

Sakura choked out a laugh. "Can I have that in writing?"

She sounded like she was crying and grinning like a fool at the same time. Sasuke was relieved that she was busy staring at Naruto and Naruto was busy staring at her; he didn't want them to see his expression right now. But they seemed lost in each other's eyes, with so many things passing between them, gratefulness and protectiveness and a million promises.

"... I'll sign you a contract if you want," Naruto whispered as he leaned even closer, forehead to forehead.

And then they were kissing and he didn't even think of looking away. Because -- because. Because it was soft and tender and beautiful, an acknowledgement of Naruto's simple, stubborn love, the birth of something --unnamed yet-- echoing in Sakura.

He sat, and watched, pretending that the painful tightness in his chest was only from the injury.

"So... Sasuke can cook and do the laundry. And you can train all day, or something."

Sakura blinked and turned to look at him, green eyes bright and open, still a little flushed from the kiss. "You can cook, Sasuke-kun?"

He shrugged, fighting to find his composure again. "Rice. Soup. Other easy stuff. I'm living on my own, I pretty much have to."

"I'm living on my own too, and I can't even do that much," Naruto replied, grinning at him.

"That's because you're a ramen-obsessed idiot." Sasuke wondered how he managed not to choke.

"Yeah, guess so."

"Don't tell me you only eat that! It's bad for your health!" Sakura replied, appalled. "I'm wondering how you didn't get horribly malnourished..."

"Well, until I was twelve I got those care packages for war orphans-- see what I'm talking about, Sasuke? And they pretty much have a little bit of everything a growing boy needs. Of course, most of it tastes like shit, but at least it's healthy shit. And I didn't have to pay for it, and if you really have to, it's not even so bad to eat 'em cold, so I didn't bother trying to cook."

And he looked like it was so normal, too. Sasuke could understand Sakura's horrified expression. At least he'd had money of his own to buy himself treats, and his neighbors regularly checked on him; there had been a granny, who regularly happened to make more pie than she could eat and shoved it at him. Most Konoha orphans were watched over very closely, even though there were too many of them to adopt.

Sasuke would bet that no one had been overly concerned with the Kyuubi's vessel.

"You better learn. I'm not going to cook all the time," he replied, implicitly accepting the offer to share a household, duties and all.

Naruto grimaced, but he didn't look that annoyed. "I will if you take your turn changing diapers."

Sakura caught the dark glare he was sending Naruto's way and started to laugh. "The way you share the chores, I'm going to end up with nothing to do except train and sleep."

"That's going to be a feat in itself, seeing how Naruto snores."

"I don't snore," the blond protested, reaching over the girl to mock-punch his jaw. Sasuke bit him.

"So... Where will we live?" Sakura intervened, asking innocently just as they were going to get up and start fighting.

"Ahh, I'd say my flat, but you've seen it, it's small enough for one guy..."

"That and your futon is only big enough when we sleep in a pile," Sasuke commented snidely. It had been alright, sleeping in a pile. It was warm and comfortable. But that was only after getting tired out and softened by a night of mad sex. Most nights, he liked being able to move around and knowing that if he was attacked, nothing would hinder him and prevent him from defending himself. Unless he was dead tired, he didn't sleep anywhere with no escape route.

"That and after the way I made an Anko-shaped hole in the wall, my landlord is going to kick me out anyway."

Sakura sighed, but didn't berate him for attacking the jounin.

"You can crash at my place," Sasuke offered, rolling his eyes. "It's too small for three, too, but we're going to need a house eventually, anyway."

Naruto's eyes lit up and he beamed at them. Sasuke could feel him bounce from across Sakura.

"A house! A house and a baby and you two... It's -- wow. Just... wow."

Sakura caressed his cheek gently.

"I want a garden," she decided, chin proudly lifted to hide the slight trembling. "With a swing. And maybe a little pond, with pretty fish..."

Naruto nodded. "I want a big couch, and pillows everywhere, so we can sprawl anywhere we want. And a skylight."

They looked at him hopefully.

"A dojo," Sasuke contributed after a few seconds of thought. Naruto rolled his eyes and Sakura sighed with amusement.

Sakura's shoulder looked inviting, so he rested his cheek against it.

"Wind chimes!" Sakura decided. "They're so pretty... and they sound so peaceful..."

"A huge fridge," Naruto went on, practical. The girl laughed and nudged him.

Sasuke yawned, searching for something else to add. Apart from their presence, he could think of nothing he really needed.

He fell asleep before he could find something more tangible to offer.


	6. Sakura : The Day That Never Ends

Reviews! Lovely reviews! So many of them! I can't believe it. ::haaappy::

Quick author notes:

-I'm very grateful you lot seem to appreciate my Sakura. Sure she's not amazing like Naruto and Sasuke and all the other great kids are -- but then that's the point. She's an ordinary girl, who happens to hang out with pretty extraordinary people.

-I work under the premise that Naruto did manage to stop Sasuke (now that the manga's gone past that, the fic has gone AU, but then it already kind of was) and that Sasuke had the snot beaten out of him rather spectacularly. So yeah, he's a bit less stuck up and more mature and responsible than before. Only with the people he actually likes, though -- the rest of the world can fuck off. XD

-As for the relationships themselves, right now they're ALL flawed in some way, and in the sequels will ALL progressively get better, as will the overall threesome.

-Not counting the epilogue, this is the last chapter. Of this fic at least. And **I've already started writing and posting sequels**, muahahaha. :-D One (prequel-ish ficlet) is on my ffnet account and the other (NC 17 yaoi) on my mediaminer account (link's in my profile)

(oh, and for the reviewer who asked, I'm 23 :p -- 2009 edit, 27 now. Man, been a while. :D)

**Chapter 6 : ****The Day That Never Ends**  
**(Sakura)**

Sakura woke up with a muscular arm thrown over her chest again. The air was damp and a bit cold, and a few birds were trilling -- some directly over her head. Maybe she could sic Naruto on them; that would take care of breakfast.

Grunting in annoyance, the girl squirmed and buried herself in the embrace of her closest boy. Mmm, warm. She fell right asleep.

Only to be awakened a few seconds later by shrill bird's whistle in her ear.

_/ARGH GODDAMN FUCK--/_

"Rrrrrgh, shaddap, stupid son of a hen and a pigeon..." Naruto snarled as he unwrapped the arm around Sakura's waist to throw something toward the source of the noise. There was the sound of wings beating frantically and then a thud as a little body hit a branch. Sakura smiled beatifically.

It was a bit weird, when she thought about it, to be in Naruto's arms, because it was still weird to see him as anything else than a (sometimes rather annoying) friend, but in her fuzzily sleepy brain, it was easier to admit that at least he had nice arms. The situation was bizarre, really, and she felt like she should have freaked out, and would freak out if only she was given the option later in the day, when she was more awake, but he was so very warm -- really, he would be just fine to cuddle with during winter. Sasuke's skin was a lot cooler; she could --she blushed as she imagined daring to do that, and even more, having the permission to-- cuddle him during summer...

... Now that she thought of it, maybe he was a bit too cold. As usual, he'd pulled away a little; he couldn't huddle close if his life depended on it; he was _/such an infuriating standoffish prick/_ so aloof. She didn't want him to get sick.

"Sasuke?" she whispered as she nudged him gently.

He didn't react.

"Sasuke?" she asked again, frowning in confusion. Was he ignoring her?

And then she noticed. His forehead was damp, his cheeks pale -- a lot paler than his usual shade, which would have seemed impossible to her only yesterday.

"Sasuke?" she repeated a third time, sitting up. Naruto grunted a protest as she pulled away from him, and she resolutely ignored the blush wanting to creep on her cheeks. She would feel embarrassed later. For now, Sasuke worried her. At a glance, she could see the vein at his throat fluttering from way too rapid a heartbeat, and when she reached out and took his wrist, it was just as if he didn't have a bone in his body -- and he was _cold_. His pulse was weak, too quick.

She crouched at his side, falling back on her training and ruthlessly smothering the part of her that wanted to cry out and sob and plead Sasuke to be okay -- she'd learned better in the last years.

"Naruto, check the perimeter," she snapped without looking back at the blond, who immediately stopped rubbing his head sleepily. A second later he'd disappeared from the branch, and she could feel his chakra building, gathering as he weaved his way through the trees.

She didn't like the way Sasuke was breathing. It was as if every breath he took pained him, and the little hissing noise it made... No, she didn't like it at all. She lifted one of his eyelids _/damn these Uchiha for having such dark eyes, how the hell am I supposed to see his pupils?!/_ checked his limbs and neck for signs of needles or scratches -- he could have been poisoned -- then not finding any, lifted Sasuke's shirt gently to glance at his body.

No need to look anywhere else. His torso was one big, ugly bruise. When had that happened? How? Why hadn't he -- no, scratch that, she knew why he hadn't said anything before. Probably thought he could be strong and manly and wait the pain out instead of disturbing her -- them -- when there was such an important decision to make.

She brushed her fingers against his ribs tenderly, maybe a bit too fast -- she saw him shudder weakly, but she couldn't guess at a glance whether his ribs were in one piece or not. But the flesh was swollen in a way that implied more than surface damage.

His stomach and abdomen were ... Hard. As if he'd clenched his muscles -- but he was still perfectly limp.

"Perimeter secure," Naruto informed her. His chakra was actually radiating warmth, and Sasuke started to shiver anew when a gust of hot wind caressed his skin, to be replaced a second later with the damp, cold atmosphere of the forest.

"The fire. Poke it. Then sit on his other side." Sakura ordered as she pulled the orange sweater she was wearing over her head and threw it over Sasuke's chest.

"What's wrong with him?" Naruto asked; there was a hint of a whine in his tone, and she almost snapped at him to shut up and let her think, but she knew that he was worried too.

"I don't know," she replied instead, and if it sounded like a snarl, it was much more from her powerlessness than any resentment toward Naruto.

"Yesterday he said his ribs were cracked," the blond offered, his usually assured voice just a tiny bit wavering. "And Kyuubi leaned on his chest..."

"He did?!" she screeched back, though quietly. Why the hell did they never tell her these things?! And why the hell hadn't she NOTICED?!

_/That might be the part with the self-pity and the cuddling up to strong males because you weren't able to deal on your own/_ Inner Sakura offered, a lot less crude and a lot more grim than she usually was. ...Shit. Shit.

"But Sasuke said he was okay, that his ribs weren't broken, and he should know, we've broken enough ribs between the three of us!" Naruto replied, flinching at the rage in her voice. He looked guilty. Good, she thought with resentment. Maybe next time they'd think to communicate their status to their teammate!

"They're not broken," she replied tersely when watching Naruto cower stopped making her feel vindicated. "I think he has internal bleeding."

And it had been going on long enough that anyone else would probably be dead already, she thought, but it didn't help. Even on one of Naruto's frogs, and not counting the jounin no doubt posted between them and the village, Konoha was too far away and he needed urgent medical treatment, treatment that she wasn't qualified to give. She'd done a few stints at the hospital, under Shizune, but not enough to learn what she needed right now. The best she could do was to make him take a little longer to die.

She looked up. She didn't need to say anything. Naruto's face was starting to mirror her own horror.

"Oh-- oh fuck..."

He started to reach out, stopped himself.

"Can we move him? I mean it won't make things worse, will it?"

She shrugged; she felt like crying. _/He'll die here just as well as in your arms, idiot,/_ she wanted to snarl back, but it would have been like kicking a puppy.

Naruto reached for Sasuke again to lift him -- and froze, eyes narrowing and nostrils flaring.

Without warning, she felt the scorching caress of the nine-tails' chakra, and then he disappeared with a snarl, only leaving the imprint of his feet in the bark.

A second later, she heard the twang of one of her tripwires and the faint sound of someone jumping aside to avoid her trap. It was not Naruto. Naruto would have crashed through the bushes, uncaring. She crouched protectively over Sasuke, kunai in hand. She didn't care that he was dying; she wouldn't let anyone hurt him!

"Yo, Haruno."

She had thrown her weapons before even recognizing the intruder.

Shikamaru was hanging upside-down from another tree, just a little above her level. His hands were in his pockets and he was scowling at her in that bored way of his. She was not about to trust that look on him. He was a special jounin; he was probably here on Konoha's business.

"You're so jumpy, I swear... I come in peace, so relax," he drawled, rolling his eyes, then glanced at Sasuke and finally appeared to take the situation seriously. "What happened to Uchiha?"

"I don't know," she admitted. She straightened up; her hands were perfectly steady, but of course the second she noticed how well she'd held her composure, she started to shake. "He has internal bleeding though. He needs medical attention," she added. She wondered why she was volunteering the info; maybe hoping he'd help. They were sort of friends, weren't they? Or if he still resented Sasuke for the whole Orochimaru mess, he was friends with Naruto, at least... Even if he was there to arrest them all, he wouldn't let Sasuke die, would he? "What are you doing here?"

He leaped onto their large branch, taking his backpack off as he advanced. "Hokage-sama sent us as negotiators. There are blankets and a thermos of soup in here," he added as he gave the pack away, not even watching her as he sat on his heels and stared at Sasuke's pale, sweaty face.

"To negotiate what?" she asked, as she pulled a blanket out and covered Sasuke. She couldn't help caressing his forehead tenderly, pushing back his long dark bangs. They were sticking to his face; he had to find that uncomfortable.

"Word back at the village amongst the ninja is that you were taken hostage by... Naruto," he replied, his voice and his whole body language indicating that he couldn't care less. But he was watching her closely, and she felt it, even as she smoothed the blanket and wetted Sasuke's lips with her water.

She was about to snap back that they'd come of their own wills, thankyouverymuch, but the godawful howl that tore through the forest just then kind of made her lose track of the conversation.

"That wasn't Naruto," she mumbled, eyes wide. The voice was different -- and she didn't think anything could make him scream in pain so easily.

"It was Kiba," Shikamaru replied in a tense voice as he scanned the forest.

"What's Kiba --" doing here? She didn't ask, because she shouldn't talk before thinking. She bit her lip. He'd probably come with Shikamaru. As one of Naruto's friends he was probably supposed to be the best choice of tracker; he could find them quickly and hope not to get killed too much in case Naruto had snapped. It made sense really. They probably hoped a team composed of his friends would prevent him from attacking.

There was a crash and the sound of more fighting, but it only lasted a few seconds.

Then Naruto phased back on the branch.

At least... she thought it was Naruto. Because not only were his eyes red and his claws out, but he was on all fours and was dragging a struggling, suffocating Hyuuga Neji by the neck. A bruise was already blooming on the Hyuuga's jaw.

He saw Shikamaru and his upper lip curled up, baring thick fangs. "Back off, Shika," he growled as he advanced toward them. Sakura briefly hoped that Neji's shorts were thick, because it had to hurt to be dragged over the rough bark. _/Hope he doesn't get splinters on his ass, he's stuck up enough./_

Slowly, very slowly, as if calming a feral animal, Shikamaru pulled his hands out of his pockets and showed them to him. "Naruto..."

"Get away from them!" the blond snarled, and she didn't know if that was truly Naruto any longer.

"Naruto, shut up!" she retorted, with more authority than she felt courage for. "Why are you dragging Neji-san like that? You're going to strangle him!"

Shikamaru finally jumped to the trunk behind them to get out of Naruto's way, using chakra to cling to the vertical surface. Not even deigning to notice the white-knuckled grip Neji had on his wrist, the blond plopped the Hyuuga down on his ass facing Sasuke, a hand closed on his nape warningly, and crouched behind him as he leaned over his shoulder.

"Show me his Tenketsu."

Neji actually blinked, and while he still faced her and Sasuke, Sakura had the unpleasant feeling that he was staring at Naruto through his own skull. "... what?"

"The points where his chakra leave his body. Find them for me. There," Naruto added as he tore the blanket and the sweater off Sasuke and threw them behind him without even looking where they landed. Sakura swallowed a cry of protest.

"... There's blood filling up his thoracic cage and abdomen," Neji stated, jaws clenched.

The blond snarled low, threateningly, baring his fangs. A drop of blood trickled down Neji's neck where his claws had pierced the skin.

"I asked you," he purred softly, threateningly, "to show me his chakra exits. So do it."

Slowly, reluctantly, Neji activated his byakugan, then reached out and brushed his fingertips over the pinpoints Naruto had asked him to find.

Sakura watched with her heart in her throat. She didn't know what Naruto was doing, or why, but she was clinging to her trust in him and her hope that somehow, he would make it alright through the sheer force of his conviction.

"And they lead to the damaged organs?"

"Yes," Neji replied. He didn't sound as resentful, now; he just sounded cold and watchful, probably waiting for the occasion to free himself.

Without replying, the blond shoved Neji out of the way to kneel at Sasuke's side. Neji just barely managed to catch himself on the next branch underneath and quickly sprang higher in the trees, out of reach. Sakura saw him moves into a fighting stance, and she tensed, but behind her Shikamaru made a quick 'back off' motion. The Hyuuga reluctantly stilled, and, mildly relieved, Sakura went back to observing Naruto.

His face was bathed in red light as his chakra crawled over his body, danced on his arms. She wanted to ask what he was doing, but there was a look of such concentration on his face that she didn't dare disturb him.

He put his fingers on the designated points, and slowly, the red chakra flowed down his hands and danced briefly on Sasuke's skin... and seeped inside him. She watched, not understanding what he was doing, only able to wait and hope.

Finally, he lost his hold on the chakra and it flickered out, leaving him to slump and sigh loudly.

She liked him better when he wasn't bathed in flames, she decided, and when his eyes were as blue as they should be.

"Neji," Shikamaru called in a low voice as he stared at Sasuke and Naruto. The blond was panting, visibly tired, but she thought Sasuke looked a bit less pale.

Or maybe it was wishful thinking, Sakura told herself as she tried not to hope, and looked up at Neji for confirmation.

"... Blood loss has slowed down," he admitted grudgingly. "But your chakra scalded his pathways. You won't be able to do it again."

"Don't care, so long as it buys enough time to get him to a hospital," Naruto shot back as he straightened up and looked for the blanket. It had fallen to a lower branch and was threatening to slide off. He jumped, snatched it, and bounced back. "Oi, Kiba, you can crawl out now," he called over his shoulder as he spread the blanket over Sasuke again. Sakura took over, making sure that it was snug around Sasuke-kun's body, smoothing the folds tenderly.

"How are we going to move him?" she asked Shikamaru. She had a few ideas but none that really pleased her; maybe he would have better suggestions.

Hands back in his pocket, Shikamaru walked down the trunk to stand on the branch again, by Sasuke's head.

"I'm afraid we have to clear up a few things before that."

Naruto threw him a disgusted, pouty look. "C'mon, Shika, there's no time for chitchat!"

"If we go in now, you'll be killed on the spot," Neji replied, still staring holes through Naruto's head -- not that Naruto seemed to notice.

"At least they will try," muttered Shikamaru as he eyed the blond speculatively.

Naruto finally seemed to notice the weird looks he was getting. "Eh? What --"

"Naruto, sit down," Sakura intervened, tone weary but authoritative. "Sasuke won't get any worse for now, and Kiba won't come out as long as you stand ready to attack."

Grumbling, he complied. She narrowed her eyes at Shikamaru.

"Now what's going on?"

Shikamaru sat cross-legged against the trunk, casually. "The Council is screaming for Naruto's blood. Hokage-sama wants to learn what really happened, so she can veto any decisions they'll try to push through."

"But we don't have the time--"

"Naruto, shut the hell up or I'll shut you up," she hissed without stopping her staring contest with Shikamaru.

The blond wilted. "Yes, Sakura-chan."

"Good. What do you know of the situation?"

Ha! She'd surprised Shikamaru. He was used to seeing her boss the blond around, though. She wondered what had changed. They'd probably been told who Naruto was housing.

"We -- that is, Kiba, Neji and I -- know that Naruto felt threatened, took you two and bolted. We also know that it has something to do with the Kyuubi sealed inside him."

Naruto flinched.

"We were sent to determine if the seal had broken or been altered, permitting the demon to possess or influence Naruto's actions, and in case he was still sane, to convince him to come back so he could be re-sealed, judged for actions already committed, and not be considered a missing-nin. We were also sent to determine the part Uchiha Sasuke took in these events and to a lesser extent, yours. They seem to assume you're a kidnap victim, Sakura," he added. The way he was looking at her, he had his doubts. Sakura blushed. Well, it was an easy assumption to make, seeing as she'd left Konoha carried off by the blond.

Naruto mumbled something, head low. Shikamaru arched an eyebrow at him. "What?"

"I said, the seal is fine."

"That's not what I'd say," Kiba growled from a safe distance away. He looked like Naruto had planted him face first in the ground; there were still leaves and clumps of soil in his hair. His dog was nowhere in sight.

Naruto's fists clenched, but he didn't move. She saw him search for a comeback, and not find any. Finally he looked down again, as if scared to stare his friends in the eye.

"Why did you attack us?" Neji asked.

Naruto flinched again. "I didn't attack you. You attacked first! I was just trying to get you to come here, Neji."

"You came at him as if you were gonna tear him apart!" Kiba retorted from his hiding place.

"Well, sorry if I was in a hurry!" Naruto finally shouted back, annoyed.

Sakura slammed her fist into the bark. There was a very satisfying crack.

"SIT. It was a misunderstanding, okay? Please, everyone calm down." _/before I fucking calm you down,/ _Inner Sakura thought, cracking her figurative knuckles.

Shikamaru and Naruto stared at each other over Sasuke's prone body.

"How are we to know that the Kyuubi isn't about to take control of you?"

Sakura stopped breathing. She trusted Naruto, because Sasuke did and because he just... was Naruto. But that was no material proof...

"Huh. If he could, why am I still here? Why would I bother saving Sasuke's ass?"

/_Because you like doing X-rated stuff to it,/_ Inner Sakura commented irreverently, but Sakura didn't say anything. It would be a bad idea to inform Shikamaru's team that they were sort of lovers _/or at least that they'd played hide-the-sausage once before/_ -- ack. If they didn't already know what exactly had happened the previous day, then it would only muddy up the atmosphere.

"Could he be influencing you?"

"He's not."

Neji snorted. "I'm sure if it did, it wouldn't bother advertising it."

"He's not," Naruto repeated with calm conviction. "When he tries, I can feel it. He... promise you won't tell?"

Shikamaru sighed. "We're on a mission, Naruto. We have to report what we find."

"... okay... Promise to tell only the old lady Tsunade then?"

Neiji scowled, but nodded sharply, and Kiba shrugged. Shikamaru nodded, agreeing for his team. "We'll report to her only."

"Sometimes he talks to me. I can tell when he's trying to push me into things or not. I know how _that_ feels. But it's just words. He can't make me."

Kiba actually flinched. "Wait, he _talks_ to you?"

Even Shikamaru looked a little out of balance, and maybe slightly queasy.

"W-what..." Kiba licked his lips nervously. "What ... does he say?"

Naruto blinked and looked embarrassed at the weariness, and even fear, he could feel in his friends. "Uh, right now or in general?"

Kiba flinched.

"He's not saying anything right now, and even if he was, I'm not listening. In general it's mostly just 'kill, destroy, how dare blahblahblah,' but I have to be pretty pissed off to hear him without actively trying to. And even then, it's just him running a commentary, I can ignore that easy. Most of the time I forget about him and it's just as if I was alone."

Even Neji looked unsettled. Sakura had to admit that she wasn't especially okay with the news, but then it wasn't precisely a surprise for her.

"But he--"

"Why the fuck does it matter now?! I've been hearing on and off him since I was twelve, and it's never been a problem before! I haven't snapped, and -- Sasuke is _dying! _The interrogation can wait!"

Kiba looked ready to roll over to show his belly, but on a branch it probably wasn't a bright idea. Sakura swallowed her fit of very misplaced laughter.

"He's right. We don't have that much time to waste. We can sort things out back home."

Shikamaru sighed, but nodded. "Fine. Kiba, you go on ahead, try to make sure they're ready to let us through without bloodshed. Neji, come here, we have to figure out a way to move him."

Kiba disappeared immediately, apparently relieved.

Sakura frowned, trying to think up a way. "Transport -- Naruto's frogs?"

Neji shook his head. "Too bouncy. Shikamaru, you're working on summoning jutsus, right?"

"... I'm still not getting anything better than fawns."

"I can carry him," offered Naruto.

Shikamaru and Sakura shook their heads at the same time. "No way. We can't put pressure on his stomach."

"Stretcher," Shikamaru added.

"We'll have to move him anyway--"

"Not if we cut the bark from under him," Neji retorted. "It's thick enough, but not that well attached to the tree."

He made quick incisions to the bark, and with a quick burst of carefully controlled chakra, had it unstuck from the tree. Naruto lifted one end and Shikamaru the other, Sakura tied a rope around Sasuke just in case they lost their balance, and they jumped off the branch.

They couldn't avoid jostling him on their trek back to the fence, but he didn't wake up. Sakura couldn't tell if that was good or bad.

She'd been so focused on making sure Sasuke arrived back at Konoha quickly that she only realized how utterly terrorized she was when they reached the gate. It was open, and they were herded into it by jounin -- not that they hadn't been going there of their own will anyway, but, as she noticed when she glanced quickly all around before jogging through the gate after the stretcher, there was no way to go anywhere else without considerable bloodshed.

They were guided up the streets the same way. The absence of passersby or even curious people watching out of their windows was nerve-wracking. It gave her the eerie feeling of being hunted through an abandoned city with a weird resemblance to her hometown. Naruto didn't appear to notice, utterly focused on Sasuke. She wondered what Neji saw, and whether seeing what he could see would make her feel better or worse. She was pretty sure there were a lot more ninja keeping an eye on them than she could catch glimpses of.

When they arrived at the hospital and saw a small group of medic-nin waiting for them, and Kakashi-sensei leaning against the wall just beside them, she could have cried. Sasuke's pulse was still beating feebly, stubbornly under her fingers. He would be okay. And Kakashi-sensei would make everything else better.

She let go of Sasuke's wrist and stood there, watching as the medic-nin lifted his prone body and dashed off, and then she turned toward Kakashi and slumped forward, bowing her head, forehead pressed against his chest.

"There, there," Kakashi muttered, patting her back with a long-suffering sigh. She didn't mind that he sounded mildly put out by her emotional reaction. He wasn't trying to push her off him, so it was okay.

The bark stretcher clattered on the ground and she heard the sound of Naruto's sandals dragging on the ground as he approached.

"You okay, Sakura-chan?" he asked. He sounded unsure; it was weird coming from Naruto.

She nodded, and rubbed her eyes discreetly before pushing away from Kakashi's chest.

"Sakura?" Naruto whispered again as he saw her eyes.

"I'm okay, really," she whispered back.

Naruto frowned, then nodded with determination. "Good. Come on. Thanks, Shika," he added as an afterthought as he pulled Sakura through the door.

"Hey!" she yelped, barely catching a last glimpse of Shikamaru and Neji. "What are you doing?"

"We're going to Sasuke," he replied, still holding her hand.

Sakura thought of resisting by pure principle, and then she thought of what it would mean to the ANBU to see her struggle to free herself. It would cause less grief all around if she came along on her own. She didn't want to give the slightest hint that he was forcing her to do anything.

Kakashi ambled casually after them, watching Naruto with one eyebrow raised. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, appearing unconcerned. "They won't let you in the operation room, you know."

Naruto seemed to falter, and finally looked up at Kakashi.

It was scary, Sakura thought, that one as strong, resilient and sure of himself as Naruto could look so afraid and so in need of comfort. Gently, taking pity on him, she tugged her wrist free, and when he reluctantly let go, she squeezed his hand comfortingly. He almost broke her fingers when he squeezed back, with a desperation that equaled her own.

"He's going to be okay," Kakashi said softly as he gazed at their interlaced fingers thoughtfully. "He's too stubborn to let himself die now."

"... Yeah... Where's Tsunade?" Naruto asked, finally stopping in his tracks. "I need her to check on my seal so she can shut up the Council idiots."

A few of the ninja who had followed them inside started, surprised by his tone, and she heard one of them choke on a shocked laugh.

Kakashi looked over his shoulder and waved one of them closer. "Yamada, find Hokage-sama and ask her where and when she can see Naruto and Sakura."

The ninja hesitated a second, then nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. The others stepped a little closer, eyeing their little group warily.

Sakura sighed, most of her concentration on rubbing and caressing the tension out of Naruto's hand. If he exploded now...

Naruto wanted to pace, she could feel it, but in the mood he was in, he would end up pacing like a caged tiger, and letting people see how impatient, nervous and angry he was right now was a bad idea. He looked threatening enough already, with the way his blue eyes gleamed almost manically and his chakra gathered and rolled around him. Before yesterday morning, she hadn't really noticed how much he had grown up. He wasn't a runt of a kid any longer; he had wide shoulders and strong muscles, and when he was tense, he moved with the fluidity and purpose of a wild beast. And his chakra -- there was only the barest of control there. If it flared up even minutely, or even if Naruto looked too threatening, the watchers would take it as a reason to attack. She didn't want them all to start slaughtering each other because Naruto wanted to beat the hell out of a wall and they took it as a sign that he was about to massacre people.

She dragged him to an open waiting room, where one whole side was paneled in glass so that the watchers didn't think they were trying to hide, and pushed him on a chair. He blinked up at her, momentarily startled out of his worry. He was still on the edge of his seat, though, and he wasn't going to stay seated, so she sat beside him and leaned against his side so he would have to shove her off to get up.

Kakashi leaned against the wall by the door, still watching them thoughtfully. Sakura blushed a little, wondering what he was thinking about, but couldn't manage to worry enough to feel honestly embarrassed. She put her head on Naruto's shoulder and closed her eyes, waiting for Tsunade-sama's convocation.

When, finally, the woman strode in, she still hadn't let go of Naruto's hand.

Naruto jumped on his feet so fast, Sakura almost fell over. She clung to his hand, for a second thinking that he'd gone mad and was going to pounce on the Hokage. Kakashi-sensei tensed, his eye narrowing, and she suddenly realized how much of his casual attitude was pretend.

"About time, you old hag! Were you joints too achy to move faster or what?"

"Shut up, you idiot! Do you think I have nothing better to do than be at your beck and call?"

Tsunade frowned down at Naruto, hands on her hips.

"You should!" Naruto shot back, stepping forward. Every ninja in sight stiffened, and a few took hold of their weapons. One of the two Council members who had come in behind Tsunade spluttered angrily.

"Oh, really?"

Sakura winced, wondering if she had to intervene. She wanted to calm them, but at the same time she really didn't want to get in the middle. The Hokage was a fearsome woman.

"When it's so important, yes!"

Tsunade lifted her hand, clenched it in a fist over Naruto's head, and Sakura cringed; but Tsunade didn't hit Naruto in the end, because then he let his angry expression slip, and underneath, he looked scared.

"You're a medic-nin. How is Sasuke?"

"How should I know? I came here directly from a meeting, I'm not the one operating -- I don't even know what happened to him," she added, frowning suspiciously.

"An ANBU tried to kill him is what happened!" he snarled. Sakura threw all her weight into keeping him in place, but even though he paused, it didn't stop his ranting. "Now he's got internal bleeding, he didn't wake up this morning and he was all cold and sweaty and-- and-- fuck."

Touched by Naruto's suddenly wavering voice, Sakura sniffled, remembering the horror she'd felt this morning when they woke up and he didn't, and leaned against Naruto's side. He sighed -- shuddered -- and briefly turned toward her, his lips brushing her brow, before glaring at the Hokage again.

Tsunade watched them in silence for a few seconds and then reached out to punch Naruto lightly in the forehead. "He was breathing when he got here, right? Still had a pulse?"

"... Yeah -- but you didn't see him--"

"Naruto. We've had to face more dire medical emergencies than simple internal hemorrhaging. If he was still alive when he got here, he'll stay this way."

She sounded so certain, so matter-of-fact, that Sakura didn't think to question her. Naruto didn't either. He sagged against Sakura, then when she stumbled, surprised, stepped back and let himself fall in a chair, suddenly boneless, all his nervous energy dissipated.

"Thank fuck," he whispered, squeezing Sakura's hand gently.

The first Council member spluttered again. Sakura eyed him worriedly. He was turning purple.

"How utterly -- _rude_!"

Naruto didn't even appear to notice that the man was talking to him, or even about him. His eyes were closed and he was making a weird relieved grimace that would have made Sakura laugh at any other time.

"Hey, brat, you do know it's not the only problem right now, don't you?" Tsunade asked with a touch of sarcasm.

"What do I care 'bout anything else?" he whined, glaring sullenly at her.

Sakura elbowed him, unable to keep to the sideline any longer. "What does THAT mean?" she hissed.

Naruto winced. "Sorry... I didn't mean it like that, Sakura-chan. So, what're the other problems, old hag?"

The first Council member -- he was wearing the Kagami emblem, even though he didn't look anything like he was one of the graceful, ethereal clan of the Mirror -- hissed in anger, though he didn't step forward, staying behind Tsunade.

"You little monster, don't you know how to be polite?!"

Naruto opened his eyes, just a slit, and gave him a coldly assessing glance, then snorted.

"Comes with not having parents, or anyone who gave enough of a flying fuck to raise me, I'm afraid."

Tsunade raised her hand before anyone could add anything.

"This is not a time for disputes. We have several problems concerning you, Naruto, and all of them would be enough to justify locking you up and awaiting a fair trial."

Suddenly, he was on his feet again, too fast to let Sakura grab him again.

"Fair, like locking Sakura up and forcing her to abort Sasuke's child, without even telling her what the hell was going on?"

Tsunade and the two Council members -- the other one, she'd just noticed, was Shino's father, the Aburame clan head -- blinked. "... Sasuke...?"

"Well, duh! He was there, too, you have to know that since you knew so damn much! What do you think he was doing, knitting socks?"

Sakura's cheeks were burning, but when Tsunade looked at her in askance, she didn't look away, and managed to meet her eyes even as she nodded a confirmation.

"You mean to say the child is Uchiha Sasuke's...?"

"We don't know that he is," Sakura intervened softly, demurely, "but we don't know that he isn't either. I am sure Uchiha-sama will be very displeased if his first heir is disposed of summarily. It isn't as if waiting a little to confirm it will cause problems. What kind of threat can an embryo be?"

They looked out of balance for a few seconds, and then Aburame-sama shook his head and stepped forward.

"You ran away from the village."

"You were gonna murder Sakura's baby!"

Sakura rested her hand on Naruto's arm in a calming gesture, while her heel discretely crushed his toes. She admired his unwavering support and blatant disregard for nobility, but the way to get the Council to treat them fairly wasn't by insulting them.

"We were worried. We knew that people were afraid and weren't taking the time to think. We only planned to wait a little while for things to calm down and then come back when they would be disposed to judge the situation rationally."

"That's what you say," Kagami-san snapped back. "But nothing says you'd have come back at all if Uchiha-kun hadn't gotten hurt."

Tsunade threw a quick glance his way, and Sakura wished she knew the Hokage better. She couldn't guess her reaction to that. There was really nothing they could say to prove their good intentions.

"This is a matter of their word against our opinion, which cannot be judged here and now," Aburame intervened before changing the subject. "You attacked the ninjas sent to stop you."

Sakura stepped on Naruto's foot before he could snarl back that they'd attacked first. "We tried as hard as possible to avoid this, Aburame-sama, but they didn't let us. Were there any severe injuries?"

"As a matter of fact," Kagami shot back, "one of the ANBU sent your way is still in observation."

Naruto's lip curled over his teeth in a very bestial expression.

_/Oh shit./_

"That wouldn't happen to be the guy with the tiger mask?" he asked in a voice whose softness was so alien that it could only sound utterly contemptuous.

"It is," Aburame replied soberly, frowning.

"Then the fucker deserves it! He was the one who injured Sasuke so bad! He and his pals ganged up on a genin, bet they were proud of themselves--"

Naruto was going to launch into a tirade as to why the son of a bitch could consider himself happy to be alive and in one piece, she could feel it, but it really was a bad idea to let him threaten people out loud, so she pinched his ass.

It was the quickest way she'd found, honest.

If Kakashi-sensei kept laughing quietly in his corner one second longer, she would murder him.

"He's going to heal, though?" she asked hopefully, elbowing Naruto to make him stop looking pole axed.

Aburame-sama nodded.

"And he's going to heal long before Sasuke," she added.

Another nod.

"Then I'm with Naruto; the retaliation was less than it could have been. We were trying to leave, not to hurt anyone. I'm sure he was only doing his job, but an injury like Sasuke got doesn't come from someone trying to capture you safely."

Tsunade actually looked mildly approving as she looked at Sakura, which made her blush, and Aburame-sama, while still as expressionless as ever, didn't look angry or like he rejected her opinion entirely. It made her feel better, a little more hopeful.

"Listen to them. The way they're telling it, we had no reason to try to prevent Kyuubi no Youko from slaughtering us all!"

Naruto hissed quietly, glaring at the man as if he was wondering in how many parts he should chop him.

"Kyuubi's not any risk to anyone, dammit!"

"Do you honestly think we would take YOUR word for this?" Kagami replied, straightening up to glower at Naruto.

She was very, very glad that the snarled reply had been too strangled to be understandable. Naruto was reddening in anger, fists clenching.

"Don't," she whispered in his ear. "He'd be too happy that you proved him right."

Kagami was now eyeing her, frowning as he looked her up and down as if trying to determine what to make of her. She met his eyes, expressionless.

"I do hope you will take Hokage-sama's word, then. We are quite willing to ask her to prove that Naruto's seal is working perfectly and isn't about to let the Kyuubi go free."

Kagami choked. "Willing to--"

"And then," she added with a little more strength, "then we will expect the matter to be settled. Unless the Council can bring in a seal specialist who can prove without a doubt that Naruto's seal -- the work of the Fourth himself," she reminded him sternly, "is indeed unraveling."

"Actually," Tsunade intervened, her voice carefully expressionless, "I have already called on an expert. I know enough about most usual seals to offer good judgment, but the knowledge of this specialist is a lot deeper than mine ever will be. He will be there tomorrow morning. Until then, Naruto, Sakura, I expect you two to stay put. Then we will expose his findings to the Council and make the appropriate decision."

"That sounds fair," Aburame-sama replied thoughtfully, nodding his agreement. "If you two run off, we will take it as an admission of guilt," he added with a hint of steel in his low voice.

Naruto nodded soberly. "We're not gonna run."

"Good; you're already facing disciplinary action as it is, mitigating circumstances or not. Kagami-san, the rest of the Council awaits our report."

The noble seemed furious, but faced with his peer's calm determination, he couldn't make a scene. He walked out with a huff and a last glare sent Naruto's way, glare that the blond teenager utterly ignored.

Of course, the second he looked away, Naruto was glowering at his back and sticking his tongue out, using his middle finger to pull his eyelid down in a very childish but undeniably expressive grimace.

Sakura gasped in horror -- Tsunade-sama was still watching them, and Kakashi-sensei, and all the ninja guarding them -- but finally, she couldn't manage to care. Letting the tension of the meeting flow out of her, she slumped back into her chair and started to laugh.

And laugh. And laugh, until she couldn't breathe, and her ribs ached.

"Oi, Sakura-chan, it wasn't that funny, you know," Naruto commented, chuckling despite himself.

Finally, she brought herself under control and wiped her tears of laughter and unnamed emotion away. "I know... I just -- it just -- I was so _scared_--"

Naruto blinked, baffled. "Scared of what? That idiot Kagami guy? Shino's dad? Okay, Shino's dad is kinda scary, all expressionless and frowning and you know he's crawling with hidden bugs and all --"

That brought on another laugh attack. "Sorry!" she gasped, as Kakashi-sensei and Tsunade-sama watched her with mild expressions of concern on their faces. "It's the nerves, that's all-- oh god -- Oh god, Naruto, I --" _/love you,/_ she thought, but she was so startled that she didn't complete her sentence out loud.

"You?"

"I... really wonder what I'm going to do with you."

Naruto blushed. Sakura decided that she didn't want to try guessing his thoughts.

"So... Hokage-sama... What's going to happen now?"

"Now, I'm going to give Sakura a check-up, and then you will be given rooms and stay there until tomorrow morning." She sounded stern, but there was an undeniably amused smile on her lips.

"Wait a second… rooms? Like one for me and one for her?"

"That was the idea, yes."

"No way in hell. I'm staying with Sakura-chan."

"Naruto..."

"What if someone decides not to wait for the decision of the Council and goes and attacks her to kill her demon spawn?"

"Then I should hope that the people guarding you will stop them!"

"Yeah, well, unless you can find guys who like me and don't mind who I'm housing, there's no way I'll trust your men with Sakura-chan's security!"

Tsunade sighed deeply. "Naruto, do you have any idea what the reaction will be if I post friends of yours to keep an eye on you? They're here as much to protect you as to prevent you from running away. I have to find neutral people."

"Then I'm staying with Sakura-chan."

"You want to spend the night in a young lady's room? How improper!" Tsunade replied, laughing.

Naruto grinned. Apparently that meant yes.

"Naruto?" Sakura asked softly.

When he turned to look at her, she hit him over the head.

"Ow!"

"That's for not even asking me if I wanted you in my room."

He gave her a kicked puppy look, rubbing his head. "You don't want me to stay with you?"

"I never said that."

He smiled, relieved.

"You can sleep on the floor."

"Oi!"

Tossing her hair over her shoulder -- something that would have been more impressive if it had been longer, but it was the attitude that counted -- Sakura got on her feet and turned toward Tsunade.

"I'm ready for the examination, Hokage-sama. And NO, Naruto, you can't stay with me during that! Keep Kakashi-sensei company or something."

Squaring her shoulders, she walked out after Tsunade.

The examination had taken a lot longer than she'd thought it would. It was night when she was finally escorted to a room. It was still in the hospital, but in the high-security ward, which wasn't reassuring but didn't surprise her.

Kakashi-sensei was waiting there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed in that pose he seemed to like so much.

"I'll take her the rest of the way, thank you," he commented distractedly at the two men escorting her. "Come along, Sakura. Maybe you can beat some sense into this idiot. He's been restless all afternoon."

Before either of them thought of protesting, he had strolled away, Sakura following quickly. Kakashi-sensei looked casual, but she knew him well enough to see that he wasn't that relaxed.

"A problem, Sensei?"

"No... Just wondering about Sasuke," he replied unconcernedly.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Men. How far they'd go to avoid admitting to being worried or scared.

"I'm worried too, but Tsunade-sama promised to warn us right away if he got worse."

She was too tired to be frantic any longer. The examination had been very thorough; she was exhausted. Also, Tsunade-sama had expressed some concern at the speed at which the embryo was binding itself to her chakra pathways, but that was nothing that Naruto hadn't warned her about -- assuming that it was due to the demon fox genes, because it could also be a Uchiha peculiarity; seeing as all their records were hidden away, there was no way to tell. In any case, from what she'd said, it would be a difficult pregnancy.

But somehow, knowing that her team would be with her helped alleviate some of her worry. It was just nine months after all. She could do it.

Naruto almost pounced on her when she came in the room. He wanted to know if she was okay, if she'd been hurt at any time, if anyone had said anything mean to her and whether she'd undressed entirely for Tsunade's examination, at which point she had to punch him into a wall for being a pervert. She allowed him to sit close to her while they ate, though, because it was visible that he'd been very worried, even if the way he masked it was particularly irritating.

There were two beds; thank god. Sleeping close to each other in the field was one thing; but she didn't feel comfortable enough to share a real bed with Naruto, especially not when Kakashi-sensei was in the room. She was already uncomfortably aware that he'd noticed their new closeness, and she didn't know what he thought, but she knew that she was scared as hell of his disapproval. She'd rather avoid the issue a while longer, really.

So it was time for bed, and she hid behind a screen and took off the pants she'd been given to replace her torn dress, only keeping her shorts and the large t-shirt like a nightdress, and then the lights turned off, and she lay down, closed her eyes...

... and couldn't fall asleep.

She was tired, so tired, limbs heavy and muddled thoughts, but it didn't seem to make a difference. One hour, two hours went that way, in the room that was just lit enough to let her see Naruto's eyes glinting in the darkness as he stared up at the ceiling, and Kakashi's shape leaning against the wall as he guarded them.

She could guess what kept Naruto awake. Probably close to her reasons, with less emphasis on future difficulties to build a normal life and more on immediate danger to his teammates, particularly Sasuke. No one had deigned to send them a report on his condition after all. If he'd gotten worse, she was sure they'd have known, but it didn't mean that they didn't want details.

Finally, the silence and forced stillness were broken when Kakashi, responding to a signal only he was aware of, pushed away from the wall and casually went to the door.

Sakura sat up, holding the blankets over her chest, and Naruto pushed himself up on his arms, surprised. Kakashi was supposed to stay with them!

"Kakashi-sensei, where are you going?" she asked softly, unsure.

"I have other business to take care of."

"Now? But-- you have to guard us..." Naruto replied, scratching his head.

"It's pressing business."

"Don't you want to warn anyone?" she asked, more and more puzzled. He couldn't leave without even finding a replacement!

"No. No time."

"_Why_!?" she whined, not understanding.

Kakashi gave her a blank look, a hand on the door handle. "Explosive diarrhea. Do you want more details?"

"ACK! Sensei, that's disgusting!" Naruto protested as she gasped in surprise and embarrassment.

"You asked."

And with that, he opened the door silently and slid out of the bedroom.

Naruto and Sakura stayed unmoving, flabbergasted.

"... D'you think he was telling the truth...?"

"Somehow, I don't really want to know."

Naruto started to chuckle. "Yeah, better to assume that he was lying again, though-- why -- oh."

"Oh?" she asked, puzzled.

"Oh. OH. Kakashi-sensei, I love you. Get up, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto jumped out of his bed, bare feet landing silently on the tiles, and tugged at her wrist until she stumbled out of bed after him, almost falling over when her legs tangled in the sheets.

"Come on, quick -- shhh, be quiet!"

"But Naruto--"

"Cast a genjutsu, so people don't see us," he demanded, his voice low and urgent. "Come on, before someone notices--"

She obeyed, pushed by the raw intensity in his eyes, dissimulating them behind the best I'm-not-important-enough-to-notice genjutsu she'd ever created.

They padded silently through the corridors, using all of their training to go unnoticed. They didn't have to hide from lots of people, though they had to dodge ninjas a few times, but she realized quickly enough that it was only because most of the high-level guards were at the exits and they weren't attempting to leave the hospital; they were going to another ward. Recovery, she saw as Naruto pulled her through another set of doors.

She didn't know how Naruto pinpointed the room they were looking for so quickly. Sense of smell maybe? But not even fifteen minutes after leaving their own room, they were coming into another bedroom, and there was Sasuke.

He was lying on his back, asleep. She walked closer silently, her eyes tearing up in relief. His skin was still as pale, but not so unhealthy-looking anymore, and there were just the IV tube and a machine to record his heartbeat. She'd been scared they would find him surrounded by dozens of machines fighting to keep him alive, but he wasn't even wearing an oxygen mask or anything -- nor was he wearing a shirt, from what she could see of his bare upper body. But that didn't matter right now. He seemed to be breathing just fine on his own, even though it was visible that he wouldn't be walking out of there anytime soon -- maybe the reason why he wasn't more heavily guarded.

"Sasuke-kun," she whispered as she stepped close to the bed, almost close enough to touch. He looked so frail... She reached out, wanting to push away that lock of dark hair that was laying across his cheek.

Her hand was batted aside and the black eyes opened, looking toward her warily.

He seemed out of it, as if everything was foggy, and the slap on her hand had been weak, his movement sluggish by Sasuke standards. She wasn't even sure he'd recognized her. But seeing him even half-aware... it was marvelous.

"Hey, Sasuke," whispered Naruto, leaning over her shoulder to peer down at him.

"... 'ruto...? Sak'ra?"

Sakura grinned, rubbing her eyes quickly. She was very tired, that was all, it was the only reason they were itching so much. "Yes, we're here."

"... Where?"

"Hospital," she replied softly as she dared to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Safe?"

"Yes, safe."

"... 'kay."

Finally, unable to resist, she reached to gently push that rebellious lock of hair away. He blinked fuzzily at her, confused.

"Sleep, Sasuke-kun," she advised, smiling softly, smoothing his hair again. "Sleep. Everything's okay."

She yawned, quickly hiding it behind her hand. Now that the stress was letting up, she felt her tiredness much more keenly. But there was only one bed in the room, and beside, she didn't want to stop caressing his hair. She knew that it was probably just his state that prevented him from protesting against the petting, but nevertheless, she was determined to enjoy that rare occasion.

"Sleep too," he muttered, eyes closing slowly.

"I'll sleep later, Sasuke-kun."

His brow furrowed. "Liar."

"I don't--"

"... 'ruto... m'ke her sleep... stupid girl..."

She was startled by the reminder that Naruto was there with them, but more so by the hands closing on her waist and lifting her. If it hadn't been so vital that they keep quiet, she would have shrieked.

Naruto carried her around the bed, so that Sasuke was between her and the door, and lay her down at Sasuke's side without asking for her opinion.

"Naruto! He's hurt, I can't sleep with him-- the IV!"

Naruto grinned, amused. "He's not made of sugar. Just put your arm over his collarbone, and don't squirm around too much."

Sasuke seemed asleep again, eyes closed, breathing softly. He didn't protest, or show any discomfort, when she followed the suggestion shyly.

Naruto pulled the blankets over them, tucking them in, then circled the bed again and sat on the edge of the mattress, one foot up and his back slumping against the headboard.

"Sleep. I'm keeping watch."

His quiet promise was the only guarantee she needed to slide into sleep.

The wake-up call the next morning came in the form of a loud knock at the door that made the doorknob rattle, then said door slapping against the wall as it was negligently kicked out of the way. Sakura sat up in a leap, startled out of her pleasant dream.

At first she didn't recognize the tall, white-haired man who was standing there, hands on his hips and watching them with a weird expression on his face.

"Knew you'd be here, brat."

"What are you doing here?!" Naruto exclaimed as he too straightened up.

The man -- Jiraiya-sama, one of the three legendary Sennin, she recognized him now that she was waking up -- straightened up and arched an eyebrow.

"Why, I'm the seal expert, brat. Were you expecting someone else?"

"What, YOU are the seal expert old Tsunade talked about? Can't be!"

"And why is that, you little pest?" the old man asked as he stepped closer to the bed.

"Maybe because it sounded like she actually respected you!"

There were people crowding behind Jiraiya, and she leaned over Sasuke protectively, eyeing them worriedly, wondering what they wanted.

Her movement drew Jiraiya's attention and he stared at her and Sasuke with amused interest. Sakura wondered what he wanted at first, and then she recognized his expression as a repressed leer. It was then that she realized -- she was leaning forward, wearing a too-large shirt, her bare leg peeking out from under the sheet, and as for what people could see of Sasuke, he could as well have been naked under the blankets. Naruto had been curled around both of them, between their heads and the headboard. The situation was unmistakably intimate.

"Congratulations are in order from what I see, son. Mind if I use that in my next book?"

Naruto gaped. "Use what -- Oh! You're crazy, they'll never say yes. You sure your usual readers would appreciate, anyway?"

Blushing, Sakura drew the sheets higher, hiding Sasuke's chest and her own cleavage. "W-what book?"

Naruto looked sheepish and mildly embarrassed. "Oh, I never told you? He writes the books Kakashi-sensei likes so much..."

Jiraiya almost preened, drawing himself up proudly. "Yes, my books are widely known indeed!"

Sakura's eyebrow twitched.

"I could make a very original scene with this -- the pure, innocent maiden, unable to choose between her two handsome suitors, giving away the flower of her womanhood to --"

The bedside table hit Jiraiya's face with a satisfying thud.

"PERVERT!"

"... I see the wild, untamed wench would fit the theme better..."

Under her, Sasuke was painstakingly shaping the seals for a katon. She didn't stop to say good morning; instead, she jumped off the bed and stalked toward the old man, who was straightening up, blinking dazedly at the broken table on the floor, and grabbed his collar to bring his face closer.

"Jiraiya-sama. With all the respect due to an elder and a genius ninja, if I have ONE reason to suspect that you alluded to our team in your perverted books, I will KILL YOU."

He blinked and then started to laugh. Sakura came down from her towering fury to realize how ridiculous the whole thing was. She wasn't even a Chuunin yet, and she was threatening one of the three legendary ninjas of Konoha as if there was a chance in hell she could manage to hurt him!

_/Hey, he did get the table in his face,/_ Inner Sakura commented smugly.

_Shut up, you! It's the last time I'm listening to you_,' she replied, flushing darkly. If Inner Sakura hadn't echoed her anger, she would never have behaved in such a way. She let go and stepped back, mortally embarrassed.

Then Naruto started to laugh too. "Guess that's your reply, pervert-sennin."

"Serves you right," Tsunade commented as she stepped inside. "Enough playing around -- Naruto, Jiraiya will check on your seal now, take your shirt off. Sasuke, lie down and rest, don't make me tie you up. Sakura, get Sasuke some water. Everyone else," and then she turned to face the men still watching through the door, "leave. Now."

Picking up the water jug she'd knocked over when she threw the table, Sakura left the room, head low. She was blushing -- she couldn't believe they'd been caught sleeping in the same bed by that perverted man, and Hokage-sama had been there too! And then she'd behaved like a fury with no respect for her betters... They were used to it from Naruto, true... Except, of course, that Naruto was a very special person indeed, if only because of all that raw power, and that she... was pretty much as banal as you could get.

She took her time in the bathroom, regaining as much of her composure as she could gather, then went back, ignoring the Jounin shadowing her. Kakashi-sensei was leaning against the wall. He smiled at her in that "ahh, why the hell are you worrying" way of his, and she managed a sheepish smile in return.

Naruto was sitting in the middle of the room, inside a series of concentric circles, slumped forward as if he'd fallen asleep. Jiraiya was facing him. There were runes and patterns all over the floor, and Sakura wondered how they'd drawn them so quickly. It looked complicated. Sasuke's bed had been pushed toward the far corner, and he was propped up against the headboard, watching the scene through sleep-heavy eyelids. A few Council members were there -- Kagami-san wasn't there, though Aburame-sama was, standing with Akimichi-san and two old people, a man and a woman, that she didn't recognize.

As she circled the design carefully, trying not to step on any of the patterns, she heard Jiraiya and Tsunade talking softly as Jiraiya examined the seal.

"...about the harmonization of the chakra signatures?" the Hokage was asking, a small frown marring her features.

"The resonance is even more advanced than last time I checked," Jiraiya replied.

Sakura stumbled, fighting not to let her eyes open wide -- from where he was, Sasuke couldn't hear, but he was watching her, now, and she wasn't sure she wanted to explain what she'd heard and why she found it so ominous. She'd heard some of it before, and Naruto's confusing explanations had hinted at something like that, but hearing it being described so clinically made her shiver.

Jiraiya snorted and scowled at Naruto. "Told you to avoid strong emotions, didn't I, brat? You're going to speed up the process." His only response was a snore. Even asleep, Naruto managed to lack respect.

One of the Council members -- one that she didn't know, the old man with a narrow, serious face -- frowned. "What process?"

Jiraiya gave him a long, considering look, then shrugged.

"The seal's process. Naruto's absorbing the Kyuubi. Power first -- then instincts, then personality. By the time the brat's thirty-five, there won't be a Kyuubi left."

Sakura shuddered, and hurried to the bed. Sasuke was looking as impassive as usual -- she could have believed that he hadn't heard, except that he actually let her hold his hand. Naruto's head was lowered and he seemed deeply asleep, so there was no checking with him to reassure herself.

"What does that mean?" the old woman asked, alarmed. "That the boy is becoming Kyuubi?"

Jiraiya snorted. "Hell no. It means that piece by piece, the Kyuubi is dissolving. Naruto will absorb some aspects of him -- the chakra reserve, some instincts, maybe some memories -- and change them to make them his."

The two unknown Council members exchanged an alarmed look, and Akimichi-san straightened up slightly, his eyes fixed on Naruto's lax body. Jiraiya continued, appearing not to notice the reaction.

"As he is the fundamental personality and was left alone to mature until he hit puberty, he will keep his moral sense -- what makes him the person that he is -- but he'll gain no more will to destroy Konoha or randomly devour passersby than he already has."

"Do you mean to tell us that there will be no side-effect at all?" the old woman asked, clearly doubtful.

"Oh, there will be some. He'll have nightmares, bad memories, maybe a few fits of temper -- nothing worse. True, he'll gain some insight into a monster's mind, but if any, that will probably disgust him even more. And he will need to learn to control or anticipate some of the instincts."

"Some time with the Inuzuka family might help with that," Tsunade commented thoughtfully. Jiraiya nodded. "The dog family? Yes, it could work... Anyway, the core personality cannot be twisted or damaged by an outside force. The seal prevents it."

"And what if he's already corrupted? Who will vouch for the core personality?" the old nobleman asked, glaring at the dozing young man.

Tsunade and Jiraiya answered back at the same time, with the same final, cutting tone. "I do."

Taken aback, the man blinked, and seemed to need a few seconds to regain his composure.

"... And this is the opinion you wish to present to the Council?"

"Yes," Jiraiya replied.

Sakura stopped wondering how someone so perverted could have such a flattering reputation. When he felt like it, Jiraiya was indeed the very essence of noblesse and moral fortitude.

The council members turned toward each other and started deliberating in low voices. Sakura bit her lip, wondering what they were talking about.

"... Sakura... Can you read their lips?" Sasuke breathed with some reluctance. Surprised, she looked at him. His pupils looked a bit weird, as if he had trouble focusing right. She wondered if that was a side effect of internal bleeding, and regretfully shook her head. They were too experienced to let that happen. Akimichi-san's body was blocking the view.

She watched with frustration as Tsunade-sama herded the Council members out of the room, leaving with them. She wanted to know what they'd been saying, but now they would have to wait until the decision was made. /_Godfuckingdamnit_./

Jiraiya stretched, hands on the small of his back as if it was aching, then strolled through the sigils on the floor and kicked Naruto's knee. "Hey, brat, wake up."

Spluttering, Naruto woke up in a leap and lashed at his assailant, but Jiraiya evaded the clumsy attack easily, punching the back of Naruto's head as retaliation. Inner Sakura rolled her eyes at the casual bullying that ensued. _/If that's how much Naruto will ever mature in his whole fucking life, I should dump his puerile ass right now./_

Sasuke was frowning, looking put out by the display. He was tense; that couldn't be good for the wounds. She cleared her throat, trying to attract Naruto and Jiraiya's attention, and then when that failed, threw the water jug at them.

"We're in a hospital; please control yourselves," she demanded sternly. Naruto, his wet bangs hanging in his face, looked suitably sheepish. Jiraiya chuckled. The old bastard was entirely dry.

"The old pervert started it," Naruto whined, giving her a pitiful look. "It was his fault."

"Honestly," she sighed. "Do I have to make you both sit in opposite corners of the room?"

"No need. I'm leaving. You can discipline Naruto, though, he needs it."

Naruto spluttered, and Sakura blushed. "I didn't mean -- you're not unwelcome or anything --"

Jiraiya smiled, amused, and she felt stupid for assuming that she could push such a man to leave with a few mildly derogatory words. "I have to go and see how the meeting's going. I want to make sure there's no wild interpretation of my diagnosis going on. Kakashi," he added, turning toward the man Sakura had forgotten was even there, "this time try to use the bathroom attached to this room, not the one at the other end of the hospital."

Kakashi's visible eye curved up in a smile. "Yes, Jiraiya-sama," he replied in a falsely chastened tone. Chuckling, the old man walked out, leaving Team Seven and its teacher alone.

Kakashi shrugged as he closed the door behind him and then gave the three of them a long, considering, surprisingly serious look. "I apologize for the lack of privacy," he commented quietly.

"We understand," Sasuke replied.

_You did enough, Sensei_, Sakura mouthed silently. She nudged Naruto before he could say that he didn't understand; he only needed to think about it for two more seconds before he got it. Kakashi had risked too much by letting them run away on him, twice now. True, two of his pupils were elite rookies, but after all, he was elite himself. He could pretend that they'd gotten the better of him the day before, when they were running away from Konoha, and he could even give convincing arguments -- he could even find 'proof' -- but he could give as much proof that he'd been outmaneuvered by his team as he wanted, no one would actually believe him. Sakura gave him a grateful, respectful bow, aware of what he'd risked to help them.

Kakashi waved it off, and gave the three of them a long, weighing look. Sakura started feeling uncomfortably aware of her hand in Sasuke's.

"So."

"... So?" Sasuke replied coldly. He didn't let go. Even despite her nervousness, Sakura was thrilled.

"I am not going to ask what happened. It's private and your own business. But what I'm not going to do either is to let my team break up over it. So tell me that you -- the three of you -- can deal with whatever happened without compromising the balance of the team, and I won't pry any further." He gave Naruto another serious, measuring look, and then his eye flicked back to Sakura and Sasuke's hands.

Sakura's cheeks were burning. She tried to find her words, but ended up stammering. And she couldn't hope that Sasuke would even try to explain.

"I'm gonna be best man at Sakura-chan and Sasuke's wedding!" Naruto blurted out.

Sakura spluttered. Kakashi-sensei was _blinking _at them, now!

Sasuke's knuckles rapped sharply on Naruto's head. "Idiot! I only asked her yesterday--"

"She said yes!"

"But it was yesterday! Give her at least a week to change her mind, you moron."

Kakashi seemed amused; Sakura wanted to die.

"Children..."

"You can come, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto added, stepping away from the bed to put him out of reach. "Maybe you can give Sasuke away or something."

"It's the woman who's given away, stupid!"

She attempted to get Sasuke to lie down again, with little success.

Naruto laughed his ass off. "I know, but I wanted to see your face! I'm sure you'd look so adorable in a cute little kimono, Sasuke-chan..."

"Naruto, I don't really want to learn anything of your kinks, you do realize," Kakashi commented lazily.

Sasuke was attempting to beat Naruto to death with his pillow. Naruto was laughing too hard to dodge. Sakura took a deep breath to calm herself down and checked the jug to see if there was any water left. No such luck. Maybe she could grab Naruto's butt again. But that wouldn't calm Sasuke down and in his position she couldn't grab him too and she was such a horrible pervert. Kakashi-sensei was looking and she was thinking about fondling her boys! She was turning into a slut.

"Sakura? You okay? You're all red." Naruto was peering at her, nose to nose.

"I'm fine, you idiot, and I think Kakashi-sensei learned a great deal more than he asked about! Learn to hold your tongue, for god's sake," she growled, eyeing him threateningly.

"Sakura's right," Kakashi commented. "And now, I'm going to take a nap on that chair. It looks very comfortable, and I'm getting too old for such long nights. Try to keep it down." And with that totally unbelievable comment, Kakashi sat down, slouched, closed his eyes, and in less than ten seconds had started producing amazingly realistic snores. Sakura didn't know if she should keep on feeling grateful, or beat him over the head for his total lack of subtlety.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto sat on the edge of the bed, ignoring the unfriendly way Sasuke was eyeing him.

"So, how you feeling, bastard?"

"Like my insides were turned to mush. How do you think I'm feeling, moron?"

_/My, what cute little pet names. Not./_ But then, expecting Sasuke and Naruto to be romantic with each other was maybe a bit... delusional. _/Totally hallucinating, you mean./_

"Oh, and thank you so much for burning my chakra pathways, you utter imbecile. Now I can't even mold enough chakra for a simple kawarimi no jutsu."

Naruto looked guilty for a few seconds, then scowled. "Hey, it was that or letting you die. It worked!"

"It shouldn't have. What did you do anyway? The doctors weren't sure."

"Uh, poured some of Kyuubi's chakra inside you. It heals me; I thought maybe it had a chance of healing you. It worked enough to stop the damage at least."

"Yeah, by cauterizing it. Idiot."

"Well, how was I to know?"

"My chakra pathways are configured for optimal Sharingan use. Not for weird healing powers. Your body's used to demon chakra; not mine."

"Right, got it, next time I'll let you die. Bastard."

"Idiot."

If it was their way to say "Sorry I worried you", or even, God forbid, "I love you, don't scare me again," she hoped they remembered that she was a girl and not a macho jerk, because if ever one of them attempted to assure her of his tender feelings by insulting her, she'd castrate them.

"You're going to wake up Kakashi-sensei," she interrupted, giving them a stern look. Naruto mumbled something about him not being asleep for real, but she glared him into submission.

Naruto fell silent, and some awkwardness fell with it. Sakura played with the edge of the sheet nervously, not looking up. Naruto was swinging his legs restlessly, and Sasuke wasn't even beating him into keeping still or getting off his bed.

"So..."

"What did the Hokage say, about..." Sasuke suddenly asked, nodding toward her belly. Sakura flushed, and pulled nervously on the large t-shirt she was wearing.

"Umm. More or less what Naruto said. The embryo is going to leech away most of my chakra. I'm going to need to train and meditate a lot in the next six months to compensate. I have to make my reserves rise." She managed an awkward smile for him; he was watching her closely, his black eyes as expressionless as ever. She didn't want to talk about the possible effects of chronic chakra exhaustion on her body right now.

Sasuke didn't move an inch, but it felt like he was slumping anyway. "So it's Naruto's."

Sakura froze. She hadn't even thought of what that could mean for Sasuke. Would he take back his offer to marry her now? Would he pull away from them--? Oh no. Oh god, please no.

Naruto shrugged and put one of his feet under his other knee with fake nonchalance. "Why, 'cause it's draining her? Nah, just means it's Kyuubi's."

They both started.

"You know what he said. It's gonna be his, regardless. I don't know what the fuck he did to the baby, but... yeah, it was his influence in the end. It's normal that he affected the baby. The old hag couldn't tell what he meant?"

Sakura shook her head, mind still reeling from her unexpected panic attack. "N-no, she... just confirmed what you said. The embryo is too small to see anything else right now. We -- a few months longer."

"No problem. After all -- whoever's the father, it doesn't matter, right Sakura-chan, Sasuke-bastard? We're in this together. You said so."

Sakura waited, her heart in her throat, as she stared at Sasuke's bowed neck, at the dark bangs hiding his face. Finally, after a small eternity, he looked up again. His expression was still as distant as ever, but his words erased all tension inside them.

"... right."

Naruto leaned toward them, his large, callused hands playing with the fold of bed-sheet Sakura was twisting.

"And if the Council decides to get rid of the child...?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper despite her best efforts.

Naruto's hand was on hers now.

"We'll abduct you and move to another village," Sasuke replied, as unconcerned as if they'd been talking of the politics of the Grass Country a century ago.

Naruto's tongue flicked quickly at his dry lips. "And if they decide... that I'm dangerous and must be put down?"

Sasuke's foot nudged Naruto's hip.

"We'll spring you out, burn the Council house down, and move to another village."

Naruto snickered and grinned at Sakura. "We actually like that crazy pyromaniac bastard. We must be insane."

"Yes, but--" she almost stopped talking there, it was so awkward and heavy and sappy -- "but at least ... we'll be warm at night. Right?"

Naruto's teasing smirk turned into a soft smile, and the corner of Sasuke's mouth lifted, just barely. She leaned against Sasuke's side, carefully; she didn't want to hurt him.

"Right."

She felt Sasuke's lips against her temple, his breath in her hair, making her shiver, and then Naruto's lips were caressing hers. She closed her eyes, briefly, enjoying his tenderness. And just before Naruto kissed Sasuke, she heard him whisper, "Burn, baby, burn." She was laughing as Sasuke bit him.


	7. Sasuke : Epilogue

Thank God most of my reviewers are sensible, tolerant people, even the ones who usually only like one sub-pairing of the threesome.  
I don't mind at all when you say "I prefer so and so together". You can tell me that, because it helps me understand where you're coming from and why you're responding to my fic in such or such 's a good thing to learn how you and your usual preferences react to my fic.

I'm usually more of a yaoi girl, but I don't want to shortchange the het lovers here; after all, Sakura is one part of that threesome and I really don't want to realize that I've put her aside by sheer habit and forgot her at some point. If I veer too much into yaoi (or too much into het) I want you to tell me. I want to keep things balanced.

In short: I only mind reviews where people try to force their opinions onto mine. Anything containing the words "Do this, write that, you have to" in a non-joking manner is more often than not instantly deleted from my inbox. Anything else - advice, opinion - you can tell me; if you're not outrageously arrogant about it, I WILL think about what you said, and I will be grateful for it.

* * *

**Epilogue**  
(Sasuke)

After so much fuss, the end of the whole mess came in a rather anticlimactic way.

There was the wait, as the Council deliberated what should be done with them for the incident. Sasuke avoided total boredom for about an hour, when he managed to secure a pen and paper and write a few quick letters to various Council members, reminding them of favors owed to his clan. He did bother to try diplomacy, but in the end he was pretty sure the threats and demands were just as blatant as Naruto's attempts at subtlety. He was cranky enough from the pain and the exhaustion that the thought of those stuffy, haughty bastards reading them made him smirk.

That finished, he spent a little while staring at Kakashi-sensei until Kakashi stopped pretending not to get it and sent the letters off with a man he trusted. After that, Sasuke nursed his aching hand and tried to forget the effort every movement took out of him. He would never show it, but the chakra depletion, though only needing rest as a cure, was more severe than he'd led them all to believe.

He spent another hour listening to Sakura and Naruto arguing, somehow managing to fall asleep in the middle of all their yelling, only to awaken, alarmed, at the sudden silence a few minutes later when they finally noticed they were being too noisy and shushed each other.

Then they tried sending nurses in to check on him, but he wasn't in a mood to be poked and prodded and forgot to protest when Naruto scared them off. He'd been about to do the same thing.

That was the summary of his whole morning. And during that time spent doing nothing but watching his teammates pace and ramble in the room, the council was underway and they were discussing the future of his child -- well, maybe not _his_, but he was already feeling possessive. And he couldn't even practice jutsu or sharpen his kunai; the nurses had neglected to give his weapons back. He felt naked.

The afternoon went in much the same way; listen to Sakura and Naruto bicker, nap, secretly agree with Naruto that it sucked that Kakashi had to stay in because they just couldn't make out with him watching -- avenger or not, he was a teenage boy, after all; making out was never going to be better than training, but it sure beat doing nothing at all -- watch Sakura beat the crap out of Naruto for being a pervert, nap, chew unenthusiastically on hospital food, nap, worry self sick about the issue of the trial, force self to nap...

It was almost six PM when finally, finally someone knocked at their door. Sasuke struggled to sit up straighter, Naruto jumped on his feet, Sakura took a deep, steadying breath, and even Kakashi deigned to wake up.

It wasn't quite who Sasuke had been expecting at all -- he'd expected either an anonymous, uninterested messenger or a Council member accompanied by a few dozens of guards in case they tried to make a run for it.

Well, there was, indeed, a chuunin bearing a message, but standing behind him was Iruka-sensei, someone Sasuke had only seen from afar since he'd left the Academy; and while he seemed to be expecting Sasuke and Naruto, he blinked in puzzlement at Sakura and Kakashi.

The unknown chuunin took a discreet deep breath before marching in, and Sasuke watched him closely. The man was nervous, and kept not-looking at Naruto. Sasuke couldn't tell if that was a normal 'my god, Kyuubi's vessel' reaction, or bad, 'the shit is about to hit the fan' news.

Iruka stepped in after him, stepping on the side to free the way back to the door. Apparently he'd recognized that the messenger seemed nervous enough without blocking his way out. Not that any ninja worth the title wouldn't have noticed.

"Hello, everyone... I was searching for you, Naruto," the teacher said in greeting. Immediately, Naruto tackled him. Sasuke rolled his eyes -- stupid Naruto was behaving like a kid; he was seventeen, why couldn't he act more like it? -- and leaned back against the headboard. Umino-san wasn't coming to give them information, therefore, Sasuke did not care. Though -- wait a sec. How had he come in without a pass, if they were still under watch?

Kakashi had apparently noticed too, for even as he stretched lazily, Sasuke saw him watch the other man closely. Iruka was attempting to shake Naruto off, laughing softly and looking a bit embarrassed.

Sasuke watched the messenger instead. The man didn't wait, just quickly shoved his scroll at Kakashi, then hurried out. Sasuke waited, fists clenched under the sheets, but Kakashi didn't open it right away, instead watching Naruto and Iruka.

"What are you doing here?" he asked nonchalantly, interrupting them.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei. I was searching for Naruto," the other teacher repeated. "I... heard that there was some trouble earlier today."

"You heard? I thought the information was restricted." Kakashi gave him a falsely bored look, that the teacher apparently didn't have problems deciphering. Sasuke filed the information away. He'd gathered that to avoid a panic, no 'mundane' inhabitant of Konoha had been told, but he hadn't known how far the info was restricted. So even most ninjas didn't know what exactly had happened today, eh? That was good. They didn't need more anti-Kyuubi hysteria.

Iruka frowned as he stepped closer to the bed. "I heard a few Jounin talking. I was worried."

Kakashi gave him another blank look. Sasuke translated the look as 'heads will roll for that breach of security'. Frankly, not that Umino Iruka was any sort of threat to Konoha -- it was just unthinkable that he would betray the village -- but being overheard by a mere school teacher who hadn't been on a real mission in years wasn't really something any Jounin could afford.

"Worried?" Kakashi asked again, as if he couldn't for the life of him remember what that word meant.

Iruka's famous temper, which Sasuke still remembered from school -- and was the one thing that made the usually dully nice man mildly interesting -- finally showed up. "We had to evacuate the classroom. No one would tell us anything. Then I hear Naruto's name -- and you want me not to be worried? You want me not to listen in?" He turned to Naruto then, ignoring Kakashi. "I'm sorry, I would have come sooner if I could, but the students..."

Naruto grinned at the teacher. He looked casual enough, but Sasuke knew him well enough to notice that the idiot really was touched.

"It's okay, I understand. But really, we did well enough on our own... I think. Er. Well, at least you won't sink with us..."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. Way to make sure the man didn't worry.

"Don't listen to him, Iruka-sensei," Sakura intervened. She sounded weary. It was probably all that time trying to keep the idiot in check. "We're fine. Well... we will be, when we know..."

"When you know...?" Iruka prompted her.

"No offense, Iruka-sensei, but you don't have the clearance," Kakashi intervened before Naruto could answer. "By the way... Guys - you can go home."

Kakashi was smiling under his mask, in his carefree way, and Sasuke had never wanted to strangle him more than right now, but then he'd also never felt such powerful relief, so he was going to be lenient and ignore his teacher's usual couldn't-care-less attitude.

"Huh? What do you mean, we can--"

Sakura squealed suddenly, then lifted her hands over her mouth, incredulous. Sasuke decided not to grump about that annoying high-pitched scream. She was... kind of pretty when her eyes shone like that. When she beamed.

Naruto still looked clueless, staring at Kakashi then at Sakura, then at him, in askance. "Eh? What do you mean, we can go home? I thought..."

Kakashi sighed, probably at Naruto's total lack of ability to read between the lines. "I mean, you can go home. Team Seven will meet in a week from now, at the usual place, hopefully with a new mission. In the meantime, do whatever you want. Dismissed." He disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto gaping, Sakura grinning, and Iruka bewildered.

"... I take it that was good news?"

Sasuke allowed himself a smirk. "Yes."

They were, after all, lowly genins, and he doubted they would ever be given official information about what exactly had happened during the Council meeting, but there were other ways to find out the details that could prove important later. The very fact that they'd been told to go on as usual showed that the Council had decided not to punish them. For now, that was enough.

They all stood by his bed, looking a little lost and not quite sure of what to do, and finally he rolled his eyes and glared at his teammates. "Go home, you idiots. It's late."

"We're not going to leave you here alone..."

He wasn't in a mood to argue about whether he was going to survive a night on his own against the hospital staff. "Sakura, your parents will worry."

She lifted a hand to her mouth. "Oh, crap. I wasn't even on a mission, they must be frantic..."

She looked at him, then at Naruto -- she seemed so unsure; he frowned. "What's the matter? Go home, Sakura."

"But -- I can't leave you two here, just like that -- and -- and... What do I tell them?"

Naruto seemed to be at a total loss. To be frank, Sasuke was, too. What did a nice, respectable, barely seventeen-year-old girl tell her parents when she decides to shack up with two guys, one of whom -- no clue which -- got her pregnant? He didn't have a clue. What did a nice, respectable, barely seventeen-year-old girl tell her parents when one of those guys was the Kyuubi no Youko's vessel, and the other a Bloodline heir who had betrayed Konoha in the past and seemed to attract psychopaths?

Naruto frowned. "Uh. Well, maybe... I mean -- maybe you shouldn't tell them right away. I mean... take it slow, y'know? Maybe -- tell Ino first. She'll know how to help. We... well. It's not as if we know how to deal with parents in the first place."

Sasuke nodded, trying not to seem too relieved. Foisting off the responsibility on Ino was a good idea. She already knew Sakura's parents, and Naruto was probably the only person in the world less qualified to counsel Sakura on the way to treat her own parents than Sasuke himself.

Iruka was still there -- Sasuke had more or less forgotten him, the man seemed made to be wallpaper - but he was politely standing a few feet away and trying not to look too curious. Sasuke didn't doubt that Naruto would spill the beans at some point, but he was too tired to deal with anyone's reaction right now. He did not care what their old teacher thought -- but Naruto did. And Sasuke doubted that he could be polite with anyone who would dare, not only to judge them, but simply to question them. It would be so much easier if everyone agreed that other people's sentimental and sexual life just weren't their business.

"... Sasuke-kun?"

With a start, Sasuke pulled himself out of his musings. He wasn't sure if they'd kept on talking without him.

"What?"

Sakura winced, and he frowned. Damn painkillers weren't working anymore, it made him sound even crankier. Why the hell was she so sensitive anyway?

"I'm ...going to go home now. I'll come back to see you tomorrow."

She hovered, unsure, and he frowned even more -- then Naruto grimaced at him and suddenly, he remembered. "... Come here," he asked as neutrally as possible. She stepped forward, almost warily, and he wondered where the fierce, no-nonsense mission-Sakura had disappeared.

It hurt like a goddamn son of a bitch to sit up, but he couldn't reach her lips so well otherwise, could he? Uncomfortably aware of Iruka's presence, he kept the kiss light, barely a brush of skin on skin, then sank back into his pillows. "... 'night, Sakura."

Girls were so weird. Naruto didn't need constant reassurances, did he? Though ... Okay, so maybe seeing her smile that blindingly compensated for the bother. A little.

Okay, so she was pretty ordinary most of the time, but kind of cute when she blushed. Okay, so maybe -- maybe it was kind of nice to know that he had the power to make someone that happy with such a simple gesture. But still, she better not expect him to be that affectionate all the time.

Maybe in private.

He was going to hang Naruto with his own entrails if the moron didn't stop making ridiculous 'aww, how cute' faces behind Sakura's back. Harrumphing in annoyance, he crossed his arms over his chest and glared away as Naruto hugged Sakura goodbye and walked her to the door.

Iruka hovered. "Do you want a glass of water, Sasuke-kun?" he asked politely. What he wanted to ask was all but polite, Sasuke could read it in the way he kept glancing at his face. He'd never pegged the teacher for a gossip, really -- though Naruto would probably reply that Iruka just wanted to know because he liked seeing his students happy or something. Whatever. Naruto could tell the man whatever he wanted, so long as Sasuke could pretend he hadn't.

Naruto came back, hands crossed behind his head. He seemed at a loss; it was visible even for him that Sasuke wasn't in a mood to chitchat. He'd been around people he'd been expected to be civil to for too long, and all the juggling with the changes in their relationship and the tiredness due to the injury made his temper even shorter.

"Go home, moron."

Naruto chuckled and scratched at his hair ruefully. "Ehh... You forgot about my landlord. I'm not even sure I still have an apartment."

Iruka frowned thoughtfully. "This has to do with the hole in the wall?"

"Well yeah. That and the ANBU. Landlord said he didn't want no problem from me; I think I about hit his limits and blasted past them."

"Maybe he hasn't made his decision yet," Iruka replied. "You should see him, attempt to straighten things out. Maybe if you promise to do the repairs yourself..."

Naruto didn't sound that convinced. "Yeah... I should at least try. If he's decided already, I just hope he's gonna wait before he throws my stuff out."

"Then hurry the hell up and go check, idiot," Sasuke muttered irritably.

"Ah -- I'll come with you," Iruka said, smiling with a touch of uneasiness. "If your landlord really threw you out..."

"You know where I live," Sasuke intervened before Iruka had the audacity to invite him over. "The key is under the third slab in the corridor. Don't trigger all my traps or I'll make you reset them."

"Heh. Of course I'm not going to trigger your traps, Sasuke," Naruto assured him, blue eyes shining with confidence. Sasuke resigned himself to buying paint to cover the burn marks on the walls.

"You better. Now go away, I want to sleep."

He closed his eyes, crossed his arms over his chest, deliberate, and pretended that his two guests didn't exist. He could feel Iruka's reprobation from here, but he wasn't the man's student any longer, and so he didn't care. Naruto chuckled.

"You're so prickly. A bit like a hedgehog."

"Shut up," he hissed, opening an eye to glare at him.

Naruto was waving a kunai under his nose. "Here's a quill, mister hedgehog. Try not to let the nurses see it."

Sasuke tried to keep hold of his irritation at the nickname, but... But. Naruto was giving him a bladed weapon.

"...Turn the key three times or you'll get showered in shuriken," he muttered as a token of his appreciation.

Still snickering, Naruto finally exited the room, dragging behind him an Iruka who was still trying to be polite. Then the door closed behind them and Sasuke was alone in his room. Finally, he could get some real rest.

Things would be hectic enough the second he left the hospital; he would have been perfectly content to warn no one about their changes in lifestyle, but Sakura needed to tell her parents and Ino, and Naruto probably wanted to tell all his friends. Sasuke predicted lots of questions and incomprehension, and lots of unease. Dealing with people -- when he was actively trying not to antagonize them -- was annoying and difficult and unnecessarily stressful, and he would almost have chosen running away, even at the cost of spending the rest of his life fighting off Hunter-nin. But his teammates wanted to stay, so that was it.

And then they would have to find a house for the three -- four -- of them. And actually earn enough money to pay for it.

Then he would have to pack his things - not a small feat, because while he didn't have so many knickknacks, by then Naruto would have been living with him for a little while and Sasuke had seen the other guy's apartment enough to know he was messy as hell.

And arrange the marriage - though he hoped Sakura would foist most of it off on her mother or on Ino or something; women were supposed to love planning weddings. Right? And if they weren't, Naruto better be.

Add, to that, forcing the Council to let them pass the Chuunin exam, and training enough to be able to go through it easily even with Sakura pregnant, and ...

Learning to live together. Not just during missions; but all the time. Permanently. Learning to tolerate people in his space. Teaching them to respect his space; learning to respect theirs, not too much, just enough. Learning how to be a husband, a father.

So many changes.

Just normal life. Life as usual. Life as adults.

In some ways, Sasuke had been an adult for a very long time, and yet he still felt very young faced with all these new responsibilities, all these obligations and ties. Were his shoulders wide enough to bear the burden alone? He didn't know. He didn't want to ever have to find out.

But together, it just might be okay. Because they were a team, the three of them, and they were unstoppable.

**End. **

* * *

And now, onto the sequels. X3 ahhh, still so much stuff to talk about.


End file.
